The Miami Heat continued their recent dominance over the LA Lakers with a 98-87 win on Thursday, while the Dallas Mavericks also won.
An under-the-weather LeBron James put in a gutsy display with 31 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Heat, despite suffering from the flu.
Since the 'Big Three' era of James, Dwyane Wade -who missed his second straight game - and Chris Bosh, Miami are unbeaten in three attempts against the Lakers.
A shootout between the top two scorers in the NBA - James and Kobe Bryant - didn't materialise with the Lakers' star closely checked in a below-par game by his standards.
He finished with 24 points, hitting eight of 21 shots after making just one of his first nine.
Dallas ended a two-game losing streak and put the brakes on the NBA's hottest team, the Utah Jazz, in a 94-91 win at Energy Solutions Arena.
The Mavericks came into the game on the back of two agonising late losses to LA sides the Lakers and Clippers, while the Jazz had won eight of nine.
Trailing by 11 in the third, the Jazz rallied to tie it at 71-71 at the end of the quarter. The game was tied at 87 late in the fourth before a Jason Terry three and Shawn Marion lay-up settled it for Dallas.
Marion finished with a season-high 22 points while Al Jefferson matched him to top score for the Jazz in a thoroughly entertaining game.
The Houston Rockets took down the New Orleans Hornets in overtime 90-88 despite a disastrous fourth quarter that yielded a franchise-low seven points.
The Rockets were led by Kevin Martin, who scored 27 of his 32 points in the first half, but almost blew the game making only three of 21 attempts from the field in the last quarter before steadying in overtime to clinch a fifth straight win.
Jason Smith top-scored with 17 points for the Hornets, who are on a horror run of 12 losses in their past 13 matches.