JUST four games into the season, the Houston Rockets already have three losses, have dealt with a suspension to Chris Paul and now must wait to see if a hamstring injury will cause James Harden to miss any time.

Donovan Mitchell scored 38 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a 100-89 victory over the Rockets on Wednesday night in a game Harden left with what the team called tightness in his left hamstring.

The Rockets got within five points midway through the fourth quarter but Harden headed to the locker room soon after and didn’t return.

With Harden out, the Jazz regained control, scoring the next 10 points to make it 94-79 and cruise to the victory.

“Just felt tightness in my left hamstring,” Harden said. “We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”

Harden missed seven games last season with a Grade 2 hamstring strain and said this was not the same type of injury.

“It’s nothing serious. Nothing serious,” he said. “It’s not close to last year. Just being cautious.”

Harden scored 29 points and Carmelo Anthony had a season-high 22 for the Rockets, who were missing two starters. Paul finished up a two-game suspension for his role in a fight with the Lakers last week and James Ennis sat out with a strained right hamstring.

Eric Gordon made his second straight start in place of Paul and Michael Carter-Williams made his first start of the season with Ennis on the bench.

Coach Mike D’Antoni knows that no one is happy about how the team is playing right now, but he’s confident that his group will turn things around soon.

“Bad start, we get it, but I saw some things tonight that we can get better at, work on and it’s not that far off,” he said.

“This team is going to be good. We just got to hang in there for a little bit and go through some growing pains.”(SD-Agencies)