CLEVELAND – Avery Johnson said he could never remember being in Cleveland when it was this warm. And that was before his torrid-shooting team char-grilled the Cavaliers.

That heat wave on the shore of Lake Erie – more like a nice fall day, by the way – was nothing compared to the Mavericks' sizzling shooting in the season opener, which produced an even-easier-than-it-sounds 92-74 victory Wednesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

It was the kind of night that left you convinced that these were impostors wearing Cleveland uniforms. They couldn't have possibly been the same team that went to the NBA Finals in June.

Then again, all the Mavericks did was dismantle the Cavaliers the same way the San Antonio Spurs did in the last meaningful games in this building.

The Mavericks shot 53 percent through three quarters, when they socked the game away.

"It's a start," said Eddie Jones, who teamed with Trenton Hassell and a strong helping defense to limit LeBron James to 10 points.

The 74 points were the lowest against the Mavericks in a season opener. Jason Terry, getting a running start with his campaign for sixth-man of the year, had 24 points off the bench, including six 3-pointers on eight tries.

A bad rebounding night was about the only negative on an evening that ensured there would be no 0-4 start for the Mavericks like there was last season.

"Defensively, we tried to get the ball out of [LeBron's] hands," Dirk Nowitzki said. "Obviously, it helps when you make a lot of shots. Jet was on fire. And everybody else spread the court. It was a great way to start, and now we move on."

The Mavericks were up by 25 midway through the third quarter, and the Cavaliers looked like they were dead. Turns out they were. But it looked for a brief time like they were just playing possum.

Damon Jones pumped in a couple of 3-pointers, and the gap was down to 67-50 with 3:07 to go in the third. What would an opener on Halloween Night be without a scary moment, right?

But the haunted house was exposed as a fake when Devin Harris hit a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to rebuild the lead to 19 points. The Cavaliers never threatened in the final 12 minutes.

It was enough to make a liar out of Johnson. Before the game, he was analyzing the Mavericks going into the opener and said: "I don't think we're going to be nearly as good tonight as we will be on down the line."

Not true.

The Mavericks came out strong from the start, surviving the first of Josh Howard's two-game suspension.

AP

Dirk Nowitzki (left) had eight rebounds and 15 points for the Dallas Mavericks.

Jerry Stackhouse started for Howard, and Jones did a nice job early in the game against James, who had no points and three fouls in the first half, at the end of which the Cavaliers left the court to a chorus of boos.

The Mavericks had something to do with that.

They also were well-oiled on the offensive end, with just about everybody chipping in. DeSagana Diop had a pair of strong dunks early. Terry had his shooting stroke dialed in. And Nowitzki did a little bit of everything on a night when he lapped James, considered a frontrunner to take Nowitzki's MVP trophy away from him this season.

"It was good to see the Jet back doing what he does really well," Johnson said. "We weren't looking for 3s, but when they were open, we took them."