CLEVELAND (Ohio) • For all that LeBron James has accomplished in his glowing career, only once did a season start this well for his team - and it ended with a National Basketball Association (NBA) championship over Kevin Durant.

He scored a season-high 30 points to go with his 12 assists on Thursday in the Cleveland Cavaliers' 128-122 victory against the short-handed Boston Celtics.

Kevin Love scored a season-high 26 points and Kyrie Irving scored 23 for the Cavs, who improved to 5-0 for the first time since the 1976-77 season.

The only other time James has been 5-0 in his career was the start of the 2011-12 season, which ended with the Miami Heat's sweep against Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder for his first NBA title.

And with a road game at the Philadelphia 76ers tomorrow morning (Singapore time), he could easily be looking at 6-0 for the first time in his career.

"We want to continue to get better," said James, who is two points shy of Hakeem Olajuwon (26,946) for 10th place on the NBA's all-time scoring list.

"When we get up on teams we've got to figure out how to continue to just push the lead up or just keep it where it is and not allow teams to get back into the game."

Isaiah Thomas scored a season-high 30 points and Avery Bradley had 26 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who were wounded and playing on the second night of back-to-back games.

Big free-agent pick-up Al Horford is in the league's concussion protocol after taking a blow to the head in practice this week, while Jae Crowder sprained his ankle in Wednesday's win in Chicago.

The Celtics are one of the teams expected to push the Cavs in the Eastern Conference this season, but they were simply outmanned on Thursday.

REUTERS