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The Cavaliers were looking for their chance to go on a run against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, but when their opportunity finally came, they fumbled it away.

The Rockets punished the Cavaliers at both ends of the court in the first half, then played just well enough in the second to come away with a 95-85 victory at the Toyota Center.

LeBron James finished with 27 points, six rebounds and seven assists to pace the Cavs, but shot an ugly 8-21 from the floor.

James played especially poor in the first half. Guarded by top-defender Shane Battier, he was unable to find open looks and went into intermission with seven points on 3-11 shooting.

Shaquille O’Neal shot 2-8 in the loss, even though he was guarded by Chuck Hayes most of the night. Hayes, the shortest starting center in the league, stands just 6-foot-6, about five inches shorter than the former MVP.

It was the second-consecutive loss for the Cavaliers, who played one of their worst games of the season.

The Rockets used a 19-1 run in the opening quarter to create some space between themselves and their opponents. During that span Trevor Ariza and Aaron Brooks made shot after shot, a theme that lasted the entire game. In the first half the two combined for 27 points.

Ariza finished the game with 26 points on 11-19 from the field. The 24-year-old didn’t shoot any foul shots in the contest, but didn’t really need to. He had it going from the outside from beginning to end, making 4-6 from the three-point line. 

“He’s just playing,” said James about Ariza after the game. ”I think the biggest thing in this league is confidence. When you believe in yourself that you can do it every single night then it takes care of itself. Then you put in the work, and you can tell Trevor has put in the work every single year.”

Ariza’s counterpart, Brooks, finished with 27 points for the game. He blew by Mo Williams time after time on drives to the hole, resulting in multiple trips to the foul line. In all he was 12-13 from the free-throw line.

At the other end Brooks did a great job of forcing Williams into contested jumpers. Williams scored just 5 points on 2-10 from the floor.

“One thing that you know when you play the Rockets is they are going to play hard no matter who is out on the court,” said James. ”I think Rick (Adleman) has definitelygiven them the opportunity to do that and they have some very good players.”

The Cavaliers shot under 40 percent from the field in the first half, but still had a chance to get back in the game after halftime, thanks to some poor second-half shooting by the Rockets.

The Rockets shot 30 percent from the field in the third quarter, but the Cavaliers failed to capitalize. They turned the ball over nine times in the period, despite a seven-point quarter by James.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” James said. ”One thing we did do, we decided to play with a little sense of urgency in the second half. We just came out way to flat against a good team.”

The Cavaliers had their final opportunity to win the game in the fourth quarter.

James made two free-throws with nine minutes remaining in the game to cut the Rockets lead to five. It looked as if they might be able to break into the deficit further, until a 9-2 run by the home team put the game away for good.

The Cavaliers did play much better in the second half, but the hole they put themselves in to begin the game proved too big to overcome.

“I don’t know how many open shots they got to start the game off, but that set the tone,” said Cavs coach Mike Brown.”… That first quarter, with the way that we came out, made it tough to bounce back.”

Brown was ejected with 1:22 remaining in the first half after arguing a call. James was posting up Battier and put up a tough shot over the defender. There appeared to be some contact, but no foul was called, much to the dismay of Brown.

“I wanted a chance to get my point across because I thought he got hit on that play,” said Brown. ”Obviously I took it a step too far.”

Brown’s ejection did seem to fire up his team a bit, but by then the Rockets had already gained control of the game.

“They really played a physical game with us tonight and it had a lot to do with the outcome,” said Brown.