Time for LeBron to admit his team is pretty good

CLEVELAND -- Before his team opened the 2009 Playoffs on Saturday, LeBron James tried to deflect any high expectations for the Cavaliers.

"The great expectations have been placed on the Celtics and Lakers," he said. "Not us."

Someone needs to tell this guy that the Cavs finished with a league-best 66 wins and will have home-court advantage throughout the 2009 Playoffs.

If that's not enough, they've also got the best player in the world. That's you, No. 23.

Voting for regular-season awards is over, but James' MVP campaign is still going strong. He almost single-handedly gave the Cavs a 1-0 lead in their first-round series with the Pistons with 38 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

James' performance wasn't quite the same as when he scored the Cavs' final 25 points in Detroit in Game 5 of the 2007 Eastern Conference finals. But even though he had more help this time around, he was still dominant.

He had the numbers and he had the highlights, including a beautiful no-look, left-handed feed to Joe Smith on a fast break, and a buzzer-beating runner from just inside halfcourt to finish the first half.

Appropriately, as James made his way to the locker room after that shot, the Cleveland crowd serenaded their star with one of many "MVP" chants heard at the 'Q' on Saturday.

Even though Mo Williams wasn't at his best, the Cavs looked as efficient as ever offensively, eclipsing the 100-point mark in regulation for the first time in the 38 games they've played against the Pistons in the course of James' six-year career.

Chalupas all around.

James got going right away, picking up 10 points and an assist as the Cavs scored on 11 of their first 14 possessions of the game. And even though the Pistons came out strong themselves, they were down eight early on.

"They made a concerted effort to get LeBron established early in that first quarter and probably a little more than they normally do," Pistons coach Michael Curry noted afterward.

And the Pistons didn't make enough of an effort to stop him.

"We have to know where LeBron is at all times," Richard Hamilton added. "We can't have [James score 38 points] and have a chance."

"We expect that from him," Williams said, "especially when teams want to take the challenge and try to guard him one-on-one."

Curry's goals for Game 1 were for his team to shoot in the 45 percent range and control the boards. They shot 46 percent and had three more offensive rebounds than the Cavs did. And they still lost by 18.

They lost because the Cavs' offense was on another level. Cleveland shot 53 percent from the field, got to the line for 27 free throws (15 more than Detroit) and turned the ball over just five times.

James played 41 minutes and had the ball on almost every possession when he was on the floor. He didn't turn the ball over once.

"[That] amazes me," Cavs coach Mike Brown said simply.

The Pistons made runs in this game, but the Cavs never went more than three possessions without a score. And that only happened twice.

With James on the bench early in the fourth quarter, Detroit cut the lead down to nine with a 7-2 run. Brown then called a timeout, put James back in the game and James immediately found Williams in the corner for an open three.

On the next possession, Williams and James ran a screen-and-roll that James turned into a reverse layup on the baseline. Then came a pair of James free throws, a pair of Joe Smith free throws off a dish from James, and a pull-up jumper from James. That sequence was part of a 13-2 run that put the game away.

"Every time they took him out of the game, we kind of made a run," the Pistons' Antonio McDyess said, "and they put him right back in."

Two years after the Cavs and Pistons last met in the postseason, the two teams look totally different. Cleveland has added a potent offense to an already strong defense. After the game, James called the difference between his team's offense of a few years ago and the offense today "night and day."

Meanwhile, Detroit has lost the defensive identity that made it a perennial title contender.

That description now fits the Cavs, whether LeBron wants to admit it or not.

NBA.com's John Schuhmann will be covering the first-round series between the Cavs and Pistons. If you have a question or comment for him, send him an e-mail. You can also follow him on twitter.