HOUSTON -- Giannis Antetokounmpo had his 7-foot-3 wingspan spread wide in front of James Harden. It was one of those moments that makes Harden smile. He loves these challenges. The competition, the fight.

See, Tuesday night in Miami, the Houston Rockets didn't play with much fight and suffered a bad loss to the second-worst team in the league.

Things changed quickly Wednesday because that's how things are in the NBA. The Rockets found their stroke, and Harden, being Harden, scored 38 points in a 111-92 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

James Harden slams home two of his game-high 38 points Wednesday over Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had 32 of his own. AP Photo/Eric Christian Smith

"Of course we needed to win," Rockets forward Trevor Ariza said. "When you're playing on the road, it's tough to win, no matter who you're playing against. So when you're at home, you've got to protect that. And you obviously have to win games at home. Playing against a team that's talented like that, you always have to prepare, you always have to know your game plan, you have to execute it."

Oh, and on that play in the fourth quarter, when Harden faced off with Antetokounmpo? He drove past the 22-year-old, do-everything talent for a layup.

The bucket was the start of a 16-5 run after the Rockets started the quarter with a 14-point advantage, only to see the lead drop to single digits. The run, punctuated by four consecutive 3-pointers from the Rockets, was another example of how difficult it is to defend this team.

Things got so silly for the Rockets that Harden started to shimmy and stick his tongue out as he strolled down the floor after nailing a 3 over Jabari Parker with 6 minutes, 13 seconds to play. It pushed the lead to 92-79, and pushed Bucks coach Jason Kidd to call timeout to give his team some time to process what was happening.

After the timeout, former Rocket Michael Beasley missed a jumper, and on the other end, Harden hit another 3.

Good night, Milwaukee.

"I think I can say right now, he is the best player in the league," Antetokounmpo said of Harden. "Oh my God, I usually don't talk about other players, but he is a player that, he's tough. He's tough. He's really tough to guard, especially with the guys that are around him, makes him even tougher to guard. You cannot over-help. I think he's doing a great job in finding his teammates and being unselfish. He's definitely up there [for MVP].”

Antetokounmpo displayed his own talents, totaling 32 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 blocked shots. He kept the Bucks around in the third quarter, scoring 12 points. There was a sequence in the third when he had a block, made back-to-back layups and hit a 3 as the Bucks cut a 13-point deficit to five.

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"I don't like to call grown men freaks, but Giannis, he's definitely a handful," Rockets guard Patrick Beverley said. "He has a lot of potential, and we just want to show a lot of bodies, force him to make jump shots over us and try to get out and run. That’s what we did."

As it has often happened this season, the Rockets began to hit their shots to take over the game and clamped down on the defensive end. After three quarters, Houston had made just 8-of-34 3-point tries. In the fourth quarter, the Rockets made 6-of-10, as Harden and Eric Gordon combined for 18 fourth-quarter points. Milwaukee shot 25 percent from 3 and 39.8 percent from the field. Despite outrebounding the Rockets 50-46, the Bucks just couldn't slow down the Rockets.

"We had to be scrappy tonight," Harden said. "Patrick did a really good job. When he switched on Jabari Parker and Giannis, he fought those guys. We were active with our hands. Early, we gave up some offensive rebounds, then we started getting rebounds, and we made shots, and that was it."