The Houston Rockets beat the Boston Celtics to extend their winning streak to a season’s best 15 games on Saturday night.

Eric Gordon scored 29 and James Harden added 26 to fire the Rockets to a narrow home victory.

Houston were trailing by six points before Trevor Ariza helped push the lead to 117-115 with 1.16 remaining. In the dying seconds, Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul added to the scoreboard with free throws, but Gordon was successful at his own free throw attempt with 2.3 seconds remaining.

Then a missed three-pointer by Marcus Smart on the buzzer gave the Rockets the 123-120 win.

The Cleveland Cavaliers were defeated again as the Denver Nuggets held off a late rally from the Cavs to triumph 126-117.

LeBron James notched his 13th triple-double of the season – scoring 25 points with 15 assists and 10 rebounds – but even 19 points from JR Smith in the second half was not enough to overcome the much-felt loss of injured Kevin Love.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles Lakers’ Lonzo Ball recorded a career-best with six three-pointers against the San Antonio Spurs.

The 20-year-old scored 18 points overall and Juliius Randle added 25 to lead the Lakers to their fifth win in a row.

The Spurs looked to be in control of the game, with the Lakers taking their first lead at 106-105 with 1:59 remaining thanks to Ball’s fourth three-pointer of the game and two free throws from Randle.

Ball extended the lead to 109-107 at 1:15 but the Spurs fought back with two free throws from Paul Gasol before Ball claimed his final three-pointer of the night to secure the victory.

Elsewhere, the Miami Heat improved on their recent poor form, beating the Detroit Pistons 105-96, and the Portland Trail Blazers extended their winning streak to six with a 108-100 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Utah Jazz claimed their second win in just over a week against the Sacramento Kings, triumphing 98-91, and the Memphis Grizzlies were defeated 107-100 by the Orlando Magic, extending their losing streak to 13 games in a row.