Trailing 1-0 from the opening game of their first-round series with the Indiana Pacers, the Cleveland Cavaliers needed an inspiration to bounce back and level things up.

Unsurprisingly, it came from LeBron James as he produced an offensive explosion to lead the Cavs to a vital 100-97 win.

The King put the team on his back once again and posted a huge double-double of 46 points and 12 rebounds on an efficient 17-of-24 shooting.

James came out of the gates in terrific fashion as he scored Cleveland's first 16 points and finished the first quarter with 20.

The four-time MVP went into the half-time break with 29 and set a franchise playoff record for the most points in a half.

LeBron accounted for almost half of the team's points on the night and only two other players reached double figures on the night as Kevin Love and Kyle Korver contributed 15 points and 12 points, respectively.

The Cavaliers had just 16 points off the bench and after the game, head coach Tyronn Lue challenged more of his players to step up and help James with the scoring load.

"I need to see more out of a lot of guys," Lue said in his postgame news conference, per ESPN's Dave McMenamin.

After a thumping in game one, Lue made adjustments to his starting lineup, dropping Jeff Green and Rodney Hood to the bench and inserting J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver.

James believes this change made a difference as it gave them a more experienced group on the floor to start the game.

"I think it's just familiarity with that lineup to start tonight," James said.

"I mean, you got four guys that's played in postseason games [together] before, and you add G-Hill, who's got his own experience as well, so that definitely helps from that standpoint.

"It allowed JG and Rodney to kind of get in and get settled into the game before their number was called, so I think it worked well for us tonight."

Korver knocked down four three-pointers and produced big defensive plays on multiple occasions.

Smith was held to just five points but he was given the assignment to guard Victor Oladipo and did a good job to slow him down on occasions, which included a big steal and a bucket as he picked him up full-court late in the game.

"I was kind of pissed that I only had [five] shots, honestly," Smith said. "But fortunately it worked out. My effort on offence, it'll come. But my defence, this team needs my defence more than anything.

"But I'll take the win more than anything. The postseason is about getting one win at a time, and that's what we've got to do."

The Ohio-based outfit will now hope to take this momentum into Indiana as the series quickly shifts over to Bankers Life Fieldhouse for game three on Friday night.

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