Rockets 118, Cavaliers 111: James Harden collected 37 points and 11 assists as visiting Houston held off Cleveland to earn its third straight win.

Chandler Parsons added 16 points and six assists and Patrick Beverley scored 15 points for the Rockets, who kept the pressure on the Los Angeles Clippers in the race for the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference. Terrence Jones scored 14 points and Jeremy Lin had 13 off the bench for Houston.

Dion Waiters scored 26 points to lead the Cavaliers, who lost their fourth straight. Tyler Zeller added a career-high 23 points and Matthew Dellavedova contributed 14 points and 10 assists for Cleveland, which played its third straight without Kyrie Irving (biceps) and Luol Deng (ankle).

Harden put up 20 points and nine assists in the first half to help the Rockets take a 67-55 lead into the break. The Cavaliers scored the first seven points of the third quarter to pull within five before Houston took off on a 20-6 run capped by Harden’s four-point play.

Harden buried a 3-pointer to give him 17 points in the period and spread the lead out to 101-72 before Cleveland cut the deficit to 22 points heading into the fourth. The Cavaliers cut it to 114-107 with 25.2 seconds left but Lin hit four free throws in the final 24.6 seconds to help put it away.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Houston C Dwight Howard (ankle) sat out his third straight game. … C Anderson Varejao recorded 12 points and 11 rebounds to help the Cavaliers control the boards 48-31. … Harden went 14-for-14 from the free-throw line as the Rockets converted 30-of-34 from the stripe.