The Dallas Mavericks began the regular season with a statement-victory against the Cleveland Cavaliers, last year’s NBA losing finalists.

After being the subject of last season’s playoffs major upset, the Mavericks defeated the Cavaliers - last season’s most-welcomed surprise - 92-74 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

Point guard Jason Terry led the Mavericks with 24 points off the bench. Jerry Stackhouse scored 17 points and Dirk Nowitzki had 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the clash between the teams that lost the last two National Basketball Association Finals. The Cavaliers were swept by San Antonio in June's NBA title series and the Mavericks lost to Miami in six games in the 2006 championship round.

Of course, offensively the Mavericks were great, but the key part of last night’s victory was the defense. They managed to hold LeBron James to just 10 points. James, who averaged 27.3 points last season, was scoreless in the first half of the game.

"It's simple, we got our behinds kicked," Cleveland head coach Mike Brown said. "Dallas came in here and did what they wanted to do defensively and offensively."

So with LeBron shooting just 2-of-11 from the floor and committing five turnovers, his team mates took the role of the scorer one after another. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had a great day at both ends of the court and finished the game with 17 points and 18 rebounds.

The Cavaliers played with James in the post more than ever, but that turned out to be a losing move as he missed several lay-ups and committed quite a few charges.

The Mavericks, who amazingly lost to the Golden State Warriors in the First round of the playoffs last season, were 29-15 up after the first quarter, and 54-34 at the half time. Of 18 three pointers attempted, the Mavericks made nine, six by Terry.

"We took what the defense gave us. I thought we made a concerted effort to get some points in the paint in the first half. Then, when we were open, we weren't hesitating tonight," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said.