Wednesday night was all about James Harden inside Rocket Arena, so much so that fans found fake beards on sticks at their seats prior to the Cleveland Cavaliers tipping things off with the Washington Wizards.

The 36-year-old's home debut came with some added buzz in the bitter winter air that returned to Cleveland. Meanwhile, fresh off an impressive 4-1 road trip, the wine and gold were looking to go into the All-Star Break riding a five-game win streak and did just that. 

Here's what stood out from the Cavs 138-113 win over the Wizards: 

It may have been Harden's night in Cleveland, but Same Merrill stole the spotlight for himself pretty quickly in this one. About 1:30 into the game, the Cavs sharpshooter knocked down his first three pointer of the game to give Cleveland a 7-2 lead. He drilled another one about 20 seconds later and the barrage was on. 

Those were the first two of SEVEN made threes from Merrill in the first half. During one stretch of the second quarter Merrill accounted for 14 of the Cavs 20 points scored over a three-minute span, including three threes. 

He finished the half 7-of-7 from deep (one shy of the franchise record for three pointers in a half) and a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor. It was a remarkable run. He eventually sat down with about four minutes left in the fourth with nine made threes and a career-high 32 points. 

There may not be a single player who has benefited more from Harden's arrival than Jarrett Allen. The 27-year-old nearly delivered a fifth consecutive double-double, dropping 21 points and nine boards. He added an assist and an emphatic block of Kyshawn George in on a fast break dunk attempt in the third quarter. 

Allen is playing with such supreme confidence right now and he seems to have a different physicality to his game as well. There were signs of this before the trade deadline, but Harden has only boosted it with his ability to set Allen up for easy buckets attacking the basket. 

Over the last five games, Allen is averaging 24.4 points and 12 boards. Whatevers gotten into him, the Cavaliers will need it to continue after the break. 

In his first game at Rocket Arena, Harden didn't deliver some epic scoring performance – he didn't need to, frankly. But don't let the lack of scoring deceive you. Harden left an imprint on this game in a handful of other ways. 

As mentioned earlier, he did a really good job getting Allen going early, dishing out three assists in the first quarter. That number ballooned to 11 by the end of the night, and one of them – a beyond the back pocket pass to Jaylon Tyson for a dunk in the third quarter – absolutely brought the house down. 

Harden entered the fourth quarter having taken just three shots, but had 13 points thanks to his efforts in getting to the line 12 times and knocking down 10 of them. Three games in, the Harden effect remains alive and well. 

The Cavaliers entered the night as 18-point favorites against Washington. However, a matchup with the bottom-feeding Wizards, one night before the hitting the All-Star break, and on the heels of a long west coast trip, had all the makings of a trap game. 

Credit to the wine and gold for bringing the energy and dominating a team they should dominate with a wire-to-wire win. Now, most of the roster gets some much-deserved time away before a pivotal home stretch to the playoffs.