HOUSTON - For 98 percent of the players populating today’s NBA, averaging nearly 27 points per game in the playoffs while dishing off around six assists and corralling approximately five rebounds per contest would be cause for a summer-long celebration.

James Harden, however, resides within the league’s two percent. As a member of the NBA elite, he knows he’s held to a higher standard – namely, the standard he set for himself during his second straight All-Star season.

So while those numbers look nice on paper, the fact they were accrued without the typical efficiency Harden employs was a noteworthy topic of conversation in the wake of Houston’s heartbreaking playoff defeat at the hands of the Portland Trail Blazers. Little wonder, then, that the 24-year-old was hardly glowing in hisCEDAR RAPIDS — Stepping into the Cherry Building feels like Dorothy stepping into Oz.

From warehouse to where-it’s-at-house, this former dairy manufacturing plant at 329 Tenth Ave. SE now embodies the motto: “Where creativity works.”

The three-story structure is full, housing an eclectic mix of more than 40 businesses. Among them: an art gallery, dance and exercise studios, a bevy of visual artists, fabric artists, de Novo Marketing, two musical instrument repair shops, a florist, photographers, massage therapists, wellness practitioners, the Friends of the Library, and the huge Ceramics Center, which features a gallery, classes and work spaces for all ages and abilities.

During early December’s Very Cherry Holiday open house, tenants’ artwork graced the first floor commons, and holiday scents mingled with the calming aromas wafting from the healing-arts suites.