James Harden and Brooklyn Nets lost again at home on Tuesday. They're now just 12-12 at Barclays Center after a 106-96 home loss to LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and the Los Angeles Lakers.

This is a team who had an away-game advantage for most of the season and with Kyrie Irving back in the fold as a road-only player, that continues to be a trend.

Kevin Durant, of course, is facing a lengthy absence as he rehabs an MCL sprain he suffered January 15 after a collision with teammate Bruce Brown. During a TNT Broadcast Tuesday, it was reported by Chris Haynes that Durant will miss the All-Star game. Haynes also noted that sharpshooter Joe Harris sought a second opinion on the ankle injury that he had surgery on back in November.

Harris has had several setbacks, and like Durant, is now targeting a post All-Star break return.

Without KD and Kyrie, that left Harden as the lone member of the Big 3 in this one to try to defeat LeBron James and company. But the entire NBA world has been wondering about the future of Harden, who has found himself the epicenter of trade rumors recently.

Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer dropped bombs Tuesday reporting that the Sixers are targeting a Harden-for-Ben Simmons blockbuster and The Beard may be open to the idea because of some frustrations he has with the Nets.

Harden finished with a triple double, his tenth of the season. He had 33 points to go with 12 boards and 11 assists. The next highest scorer was Patty Mills who dropped 15. It was a far cry from the 34 points Mills scored on Christmas Day in a huge holiday win.

But after another disappointing home loss, everyone wanted to know if James Harden had seen the recent trade reports.

Harden was told there were some reports stating he may not be happy in Brooklyn or with Steve Nash's end-of-game rotations. The piece also talked about how he was unhappy with Kyrie Irving's status as a part-time player.

“Reports from who?” asked Harden. The reporter did not immediately answer. “Alright then, I don't know what you're talking about,” said Harden. The nine-time All Star was then asked to speak to his experience living in Brooklyn.

“What you mean?” asked The Beard. “You're talking about reports, I don't know about reports. Did you guys hear from me? I don't know about no reports.”

Do you enjoy New York City?

“Yeah,” Harden responded.

A second reporter followed up for clarification. Even if you did not see them yourself, could you speak to some of the points being made about you?

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“Listen, listen I don't know about any reports,” said the clearly frustrated Nets guard. “Of course, I'm frustrated, because we're not healthy, there's a lot of inconsistency for whatever reason, injuries, COVID, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah it's frustrating and I think everybody in this organization is frustrated because we are better than what our record is, and we should be on the way up. So that's all it is. I don't know about reports. If you didn't hear it from me, I don't talk to nobody, I don't have an agent, like if ya'll don't hear from me than it's reports. So I'm frustrated because I want to win and I'm a competitor it's pretty simple.”

Before the game, head coach Steve Nash had the opportunity to weigh in on the same subject. Had the second-year coach spoken to his player about this stuff?

“Uh no,” Nash shared. “I just heard about [these] reports, and I haven’t spoken to him about any of these things so I’m not sure what to believe.  James and I speak all the time, I think we have a great relationship so I’m not sure the validity of these comment to be honest with you. But we talk, the rotations, or whatever that comment, it seems very strange seeing as though we have different guys available pretty much every other night. So I don’t see James as saying a lot of this stuff and feel like our relationship has been really good and we’ve worked through a lot of things together this year.”

When the news about Harden's wandering eye and a possible Ben Simmons sign-and-trade first broke, we looked at three things the Nets must do in order to keep Harden happy. These key points become even more vital now that Harden is frustrated because his star teammates are not out there on the floor with him every night and the team is losing more than he'd like. We'll have to keep our eye on this one.

Every time we think we're nearing some scary hours, something else gets in the way.