HOUSTON — For those looking for scintillating entertainment Thursday night, there were better places to be than in front of a television set watching the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Houston Rockets.

The Cavaliers fell to the Rockets, 93-74, and lost yet another player when forward Ben Wallace broke his right leg in the first quarter. He remained in the game until the third quarter.

The early prognosis is that Wallace will be out four to six weeks, which would put him back in time for the playoffs. However, he hopes to return before then.

"I don't know how much I can realistically help the team if I just come back for the playoffs," Wallace said.

That news seemed fitting for the occasion, considering the Cavs set season lows in points scored in a quarter (10 in the third), overall points in a game and field-goal percentage at 33.8 percent. Also LeBron James was held without an assist for the first time in his career.

It was bad from the beginning, when the Cavaliers shot 17.6 percent in the opening quarter.

It would have been a different story had the Rockets blown out the Cavs, but that didn't come close to happening as they shot just 28 percent from the floor.

The first-quarter score? An exciting 19-11 in the Rockets' favor.

The Cavs' collective problem was a motivated Rockets team that hunkered down on defense and manned-up on each Cav, no matter who had the ball.

Before the game, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown offered high praise for the Rockets' Ron Artest, the controversial forward whom trouble seemed to follow. Brown said he was one of the five best players in the league.

Artest spent much of the game glued to James, matching him almost minute for minute. James scored 21 points, but he worked harder for them than he might have at any point in the season.

What also cannot be dismissed is the way that Artest and his cohort Shane Battier limited James' overall game. James came in averaging 7.3 rebounds and 7.2 assists per game. He left with just one rebound and zero assists.

"I'm not happy about that at all," James said regarding the lack of assists. "I can't remember the last time I didn't have one."

Couple that with their inability to stop Yao Ming, who seemingly toyed with whomever Brown put on the 7-foot-6 center.

Yao dominated the lane and showed that Zydrunas Ilgauskas isn't the only center in the NBA who can connect from the outside. Yao did both on his way to a 28-point, nine-rebound night.

"Yao was a handful for us," Brown said. "We tried to mix up coverages, but everything we threw at him he seemed to convert."

That's not to say the Cavaliers didn't make a run at the Rockets. They gradually cut into the Rockets' lead to start the fourth quarter with an 11-4 run and put themselves back in the game with 8:12 left in the fourth quarter at 72-61.

Houston quickly countered that with a quick, five-point flourish, including a 3-point shot by Von Wafer (19 points).