CLEVELAND -- Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue has insisted throughout the Cavaliers' terrific start that they still hadn't played a full game. The defense had been suspect, the shooting erratic. All of that changed Friday.

Kyrie Irving scored 25 points and passed for a season-high 11 assists, LeBron James scored 21 points and Kevin Love had 12 points and 13 rebounds in the Cavs' 104-81 dismantling of the Detroit Pistons.

Lue burned his first timeout 97 seconds into the game to curse out his players. After that, nothing else needed to be said. The Cavs strung together one of their finest defensive performances of the year, holding the Pistons to 31 percent shooting in the rout.

"Offensively and defensively this is the best we've played all year," James said.

The Cavs led 30-19 after the first quarter and kept piling on from there, extending the lead to 32 in the third quarter before Lue cleared his bench for the fourth.

"I thought what we did defensively was really good," Lue said. "We made some mistakes, but we played hard. When you play hard, you can cover for mistakes. I thought we did a great job of just playing hard in that first half."

The Pistons fell to 1-7 on the road and continued their miserable struggles away from the Palace. This time, they were never really in the game.

"We got crushed," Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said. "They did everything better. We were just awful."

Jon Leuer scored 15 points off the bench for the Pistons, including nine in the fourth quarter after the game was out of reach. Andre Drummond scored eight points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Tobias Harris and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope each scored nine points.

Van Gundy said he is contemplating lineup changes.

"Give them all the credit. They played a lot harder than we did," he said. "Their guys all played really, really hard. We need to find people that play that hard."

The Cavs, meanwhile, continue to roll. They have made at least 10 3-pointers in every game this season, an NBA record that is now at 12 games and climbing. Irving's assists were one off his career high while Tristan Thompson also matched his season high with 14 rebounds. J.R. Smith passed Dirk Nowitzki for 15th place on the 3-point career list and now has 1,706. Smith returned to the lineup after missing the last three games with a sore ankle.

"I guess you stick around long enough and make enough shots, you pass somebody," Smith joked.

Smith continues to rehab his image in Cleveland. He has always wanted to participate in the league's 3-point shootout during All-Star weekend, but has never been invited. He doesn't believe he'll get a call this year, either. But Lue is just pleased with the way he fits this system.

"He's always been a great shooter and I think at times in Denver and New York, maybe he took a lot of tougher shots, one-on-one off the dribble and trying to create his own shot from 3," Lue said. "Here with this team, with Kevin and Kyrie and LeBron and the way they demand so much attention, now he's getting open, easy shots and he's always been a knockdown shooter. I think now he's getting easier shots and shots in rhythm and he knows where his shot's gonna come from."

NOTES: Cavaliers F LeBron James said he'd love to meet good friend Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA Finals, but recognizes it's too early to have such talk. The Clippers entered Friday with the NBA's best record (10-2). "We've always thought about that. We've talked about it. Your mind definitely goes to that point, but we'll see what happens." ... The Cavs don't play again until Wednesday, so coach Ty Lue is giving the players the weekend off. ... Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy admitted this week he has used the term "posse" to refer to African-Americans after LeBron James was offended by the way Phil Jackson used it to describe him and his friends. "The people in the majority don't get to decide what is racist and what's not," Van Gundy said. "It's like men don't get to decide what's sexist and what's not. You have to listen and if you care, you listen and you try to get better from it." ... The Pistons host the Boston Celtics on Saturday.