It’s been drawing rave reviews. Popular NBA one-man show “An Evening with James Harden” hits New York on Wednesday when the Rockets visit the Knicks.

Harden in the Garden!

Just in the past week-and-a-half, Harden scored 58 points in 45 minutes at home against the Nets, and 57 points in 34 minutes versus Memphis. Harden has topped 40 points in five of his last seven outings, and 10 of his last 14. It would have been 6-of-7 and 11-of-14 but Harden sat the fourth quarter of Monday’s 121-93 blowout loss in Philadelphia after tallying 37 points in 31 minutes.

What might Harden and the Rockets do against a Knicks team that’s been playing like it’s in the tank for several weeks? The Knicks were outclassed badly by Oklahoma City 127-109 on Monday. That brought the Knicks to

2-19 straight up their last 21 games, 6-27 their last 33 games, and 10-35 for the season.

The best recent match was a Houston home game against the similarly free-falling Cavaliers (2-18 their last 20, 9-39 for the season). Harden scored 43 points in just 30 minutes of a 141-113 laugher.

(Last season, VSiN’s Gill Alexander of “A Numbers Game” guided viewers through an NBA “Tankapalooza” betting approach down the stretch. That was simply fading teams with questionable motivation on the money line night by night. That might need to start sooner this season given recent form of the Knicks, Cavaliers, Bulls and Suns.)

While Harden is likely to do whatever he wants in terms of point production, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Rockets will cover the point spread. Houston is 1-5 ATS its last six games if you throw out disinterested Cleveland. The Rockets’ defense is known to disappear when Harden has to devote this much energy to scoring. These are some of their recent defensive efficiency disasters:

If you’re not aware of basketball analytics, “defensive efficiency” is points allowed per 100 possessions. Per-game averages for the NBA’s worst teams this season are in the 110-115 range.

Bettors will have to decide if they want to lay points on the road with a team that isn’t worried about peak performance on defense, or take points with a host focused more on getting Zion Williamson or another college superstar to begin a long-term residency at 4 Penn Plaza next season.

Though Houston has been dealing with injuries for weeks, and isn’t currently even slotted for home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the Rockets have the fifth/shortest odds at William Hill to win the NBA championship. Most recent futures prices: Golden State -210, Toronto 15/2, Boston 15/2, Milwaukee 10/1, Houston 15/1 and Philadelphia 15/1.

The Rockets gave Golden State all it could handle last spring. Won’t happen again unless the current “one-man show” turns back into a team effort on both sides of the floor.