CLEVELAND — They circled this game on their calendar months ago. On Friday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers checked it off as another win.

Their biggest in a season getting special.

LeBron James scored 38 points, harassed Paul Pierce all over the floor and strengthened his case to be the league's MVP front-runner as the Cavaliers, playing with a bottled-up intensity reserved for the playoffs, improved to 19-0 at home by beating the staggering Boston Celtics 98-83 on Friday night.

James scored 23 in the second half. He added seven rebounds, six assists, four steals, three blocks and made Pierce's life miserable for 35 minutes.

After the Cavs had built their lead to a comfortable 20 points in the second half, Cleveland fans began chanting "M-V-P!"

There was no debate this night on who was the best player — or which was the better team.

"We want to continue to protect our home court and we want to continue to get better. Tonight I think we got better," James said. "We don't want to take a step back because we got a big picture and a big goal. You don't want to waste a game. We got really better tonight."

With James leading the way, the Cavaliers handed the Celtics their second-worst loss of the season and dropped them to 2-7 since opening a league-record 27-2. Boston had to resort to fouling Ben Wallace to try to trim Cleveland's lead in the fourth quarter, but the Hack-A-Ben strategy was hardly effective as Cleveland's forward, a 44 percent free-throw shooter, made 5-of-10 free throws after being fouled on five straight possessions.

When he was taken out, Wallace shot a menacing stare toward Boston coach Doc Rivers, who pulled his starters with the outcome decided in the final minutes.

"We're good," Pierce said. "That's the God's honest truth. Nobody likes losing, but we're going to stay positive. That's our strength as a team."

Pierce, who came in averaging 19.5 points, was held to 11 on 4-of-15 shooting. Boston's leading scorer only got into double digits when James turned him over to Wally Szczerbiak in the fourth. Before that, James wouldn't let Pierce get out of his sight, chasing up, down and around the 94-foot court.

James refused to take full credit for stopping Pierce, but he deserved it.

"You can't continue to give him one look because of how good of a player he is," James said. "My teammates did a good job of letting me know where they were behind me and helping me out. I didn't do it by myself. It was a whole team concept."