Rockets embarrass James, Cavs by 32 pts

CLEVELAND – Ashamed to show his face any longer, LeBron James stared at the floor as he headed toward the locker room before the final horn sounded. An inglorious exit. The Cavaliers have become an embarrassment.

“I’m lost for words,” James said after Cleveland was humiliated by the Houston Rockets, who rained down 19 3-pointers on the disconnected Cavaliers in a 12088 blowout on Saturday night.

Chris Paul scored 22 points with 11 assists, Ryan Anderson added 21 points and the longrange Rockets became the latest team to manhandle the Cavaliers on national TV.

“They should take us off every nationally televised game for the rest of the season,” said James, who spoke softly with a baseball cap pulled over his eyes. “We haven’t played good at all and we get our butts kicked every time we play on national television, so I’m at a loss for words.”

James Harden only scored 16 – 15 below his league-leading average – but Houston rolled to its fourth straight win and improved to 11-2 since Jan. 8.

Meanwhile, the Cavs’ downward spiral accelerated.

Since losing at Golden State on Christmas, James and his teammates are 0-8 in network broadcasts and have been embarrassed in several matchups against quality teams. They lost by 28 at Minnesota, 34 in Toronto, 24 at home to Oklahoma City and 32 to the Rockets, who toyed with the defending Eastern Conference champs.

In Denver, Nikola Jokic scored 19 points, including a go-ahead triple with 2:10 left, and added nine rebounds as the Denver Nuggets beat the Golden State Warriors, 115-108.

Will Barton had 25 points and Gary Harris 16 for the Nuggets, who split the four games with Golden State this season.

Kevin Durant scored 31 points and Stephen Curry had 24 for Golden State.