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The Cavaliers looked like an offensive juggernaut on Monday night. The Knicks just have that effect on them.

The visitors from New York were little match for the NBA’s best, suffering a 124-93 rout that allowed LeBron James to watch from the bench for the entire fourth quarter. After jumping out to a huge halftime lead, the Cavaliers used the opening few minutes of the third period to embarass the ‘defenseless’ Knicks.

LeBron James and Co. outscored Mike D’Antoni’s team 27-11 in the third period, allowing them to head into the final 12 minutes with a remarkable 42-point lead.

“I thought that after getting up big, we did a nice job of staying focused, coming out in the third quarter and trying to close and finish the game the right way,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said after the game. ”Give everybody in that locker room credit for trying to string a game together for 48 minutes, even though we were fortunate to get off to a big lead.”

The strong start was possible through the Cavaliers’ biggest strength, teamwork.

They tallied 20 assists in the opening half, including eight from Mo Williams and five from James. Taking advantage of the Knicks inability to get back defensively, the Cavaliers were able to get plenty of easy baskets.

Whether it was a New York turnover or missed shot, it seemed there was always a Cavalier looking to find a teammate up ahead for a dunk or layup.

“We have athletic guys who can get out on the break and finish at the rim,” James said. “It’s not something that we practice a lot, but we do practice throwing the ball ahead and getting into our sets early.”

The Cavaliers finished with 74 points in the opening half, tying their season high set last month against, you guessed it, the New York Knicks.

At this point the Cavs must be salivating every time the Knicks come up on the schedule. They simply do not have the defensive mindset or athletic ability to deal with some of the physical specimens the Cavaliers can throw at them.

“We just couldn’t guard them,” D’Antoni said. “They’re just too big, too fast. … In a game like this, somebody like (Wilson Chandler), who at least has the athleticism, can match up a little bit. Otherwise, we just couldn’t match up with them.”

At halftime 10 Cavaliers had already scored. By the end of the game the total was up to the maximum 12 players, including Darnell Jackson, who just a few days ago was playing in the NBA Developmental League.

The final tally of 124 points marked the 10th time in the last 12 games that the Cavs have scored 100 or more points.

The team appears to be getting into a nice rhythm offensively as they continue to get used to two-time All-Star Antawn Jamison being in the lineup.

“We’re moving the ball, getting up and down the floor,” James said. ”We’re playing together. We aren’t saying (to ourselves) ‘let’s go out and score 120’, it just happens in the flow.”

James finished the game with 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists , while Jamison pitched in 17 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

Neither player had to move a muscle during the final quarter as Mike Brown went to the team’s bench to finish the game. The Knicks did outscore the Cavs 34-23 in the fourth, but by then it didn’t really matter what happened. The Cavaliers had already run them out of the arena.

“They are playing for something bigger than what we are really playing for,” Tracy McGrady said. ”They just pretty much outplayed us across the whole board.”

The Knicks got the league’s first taste of the Cavaliers new, smaller starting lineup. With Shaquille O’Neal out 6-8 weeks due to a thumb injury, Brown decided to pencil J.J. Hickson into the middle, allowing Anderson Varejao to continue his role as sixth man.

Although Hickson is a fairly short center at just 6-foot-9, he held his own well against a team that starts an undersized center, David Lee, as well.

Hickson finished with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting and also added nine rebounds.

“I’ve been getting a lot more comfortable with this unit going forward with me just getting more playing time,” Hickson said. ”Also the fact that I’ve been playing with (Williams) and (James), it’s made my job so much easier where I just have to run the floor or set a pick and roll to the basket and I know it’s going to be there because our whole team is unselfish.”