The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a heavy defeat as the Houston Rockets stormed to a 120-88 victory on Saturday night.

Chris Paul made 22 points and despite just 16 points from James Harden, who holds a league-best 31 points-a-game average, the Rockets claimed their fourth win in a row at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Ryan Anderson added to the tally with 21 points, while in a reverse of fortunes, the Cavs’ LeBron James scored only 11 points and sat out the fourth quarter as a fightback looked ever more impossible.

The loss continues Cleveland’s recent bad run of form, after the defending Eastern Conference champions were defeated by Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Toronto of late – with the Raptors thrashing them by 34 points last month.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons left it late into the fourth quarter to see out their victory against the Miami Heat.

Blake Griffin scored a three-pointer in the final minute to help propel the Pistons to the 111-107 win.

Andre Drummond scored 23 points and 20 rebounds, while Ish Smith made 25 points – and the ultimate three-pointer with 14 seconds on the clock – to put the Pistons on three wins in a row.

Elsewhere, Will Barton scored 25 points to help the Denver Nuggets beat the Golden State Warriors 115-108, and Victor Oladipo and Bojan Bogdanovic each made 19 points in the Indiana Pacers’ 110-92 victory against the Philadelphia 76ers.

Tomas Satoransky celebrated a career-high 19 points as the Washington Wizards beat the Orlando Magic 115-98, while Karl-Anthony Towns claimed his 47th double-double as the Minnesota Timberwolves overcame the New Orleans Pelicans 118-107.

Ricky Rubio laid claim to a season-best 34 points to lead the Utah Jazz to their fifth win in a row against the San Antonio Spurs, who lost 120-111, while the Dallas Mavericks put an end to their five-game losing streak thanks to a run of three-pointers from Yogi Ferrell in the fourth to beat the Sacramento Kings 106-99.

Tobias Harris made a good first impression for the Los Angeles Clippers, scoring 24 points on his debut to lift his team to a 113-103 win over the Chicago Bulls.