Los Angeles - With their eyes on the prize, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated Easter Sunday by making rabbit stew out of the helpless Boston Celtics. James scored 29 points with five three-pointers before sitting out the final quarter, and the Cavaliers crushed the reigning NBA Champions 107-76, to move within one victory of clinching the league's best record.

"You can never envision how many points you are going to lose by or how many points you are going to win by when you play anyone," James said after the Cavs' most-lopsided victory in the all-time series.

"With two games left in the regular season, you don't want to take a step backwards, you want to continue to get better. We got better tonight, and that's the most important thing."

With a road victory Monday night against Indiana, the Cavaliers (65-15) are to become league champions and secure home-court advantage throughout the entire playoffs.

"What's more important is that we continue to play at a high level like we have played the past few weeks," James added. "If we do that, and it clinches home-court throughout the playoffs, then great for the franchise, great for the team."

The Cavs are also chasing history. By beating Philadelphia in Wednesday night's regular-season finale at the Quicken Loans Arena, they could match the 1985-86 Celtics' 40-1 record for the best home mark in a season.

"Why not go out with a bang? Cavs guard Mo Williams said.

Daniel Gibson scored 15, Williams and Delonte West added 13 apiece for the Cavaliers, who shot a sizzling 55 per cent from the field, dominated the boards 46-28 while holding the Celtics to a season-low in points.

"I think we got our swagger back on defence," West said.

Paul Pierce had 14 points for the Celtics, who without injured All-Star forward Kevin Garnett (knee sprain) suffered their worst shellacking of the season, one day after clinching the second seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Asked what the Celtics were lacking Celtics centre Kendrick Perkins said: "I think the effort."

"You can tell one team was playing for a purpose, and the other team was kind of whatever. It should never be that way."

The Cavaliers started strong and never let up. James outscored the poor-shooting Celtics, (3-of-20), 10-9 in the opening quarter en route to 31-9 advantage. The gap grew to 49-19 with 4:23 left before the Celtics went on a 14-0 run to pull within 16. James, however, stopped the momentum with a three-point play, and the hosts led 52-33 at the break.

The assault continued in the third quarter as "King James" went off for 14 more points with three triples, a three-point play and a spectacular hammer dunk to make it 82-56 entering the final frame.

While his teammates were putting the finishing touches on the blowout, James, Williams and West began dancing in their seats to the delight of the sold-out crowd.

Elsewhere:

Miami Heat 122, New York Knicks 105 NBA scoring leader Dwyane Wade shredded the defenseless Knicks for a career-high 55 points, including six three-pointers and the Heat clinched the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Michael Beasley had 28 points with 16 rebounds for host Miami (42-38), which will open up against fourth-seeded Atlanta in the first-round.

LA Lakers 92, Memphis Grizzlies 75 Andrew Bynum scored 18 points, Kobe Bryant added 16 and the Western-Conference champion Lakers (64-17) completed a 4-0 series sweep over the visiting Grizzlies.

Spain's Pau Gasol had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers (64-17), while younger brother Marc, finished with 14 and eight boards for the Grizzlies.

Toronto Raptors 111, Philadelphia 76ers 104 Chris Bosh scored 22 points, Anthony Parker had 18 and the lottery-bound Raptors sent the stumbling Sixers to their season-high fifth straight loss.

Louis Williams had 23 points, while Samuel Dalembert added 18 with 12 rebounds for visiting Philadelphia (40-40) which dropped into a sixth place tie with idle Chicago for Eastern Conference playoff positioning

New Orleans Hornets 102, Dallas Mavericks 92 Chris Paul collected 31 points, 17 assists and nine rebounds, David West also scored 31, and the Hornets regained a one-game lead over the Mavericks for the sixth seed in the Western Conference playoff hunt.

German wunderkind Dirk Nowitzki had 29 points and 14 rebounds for seventh-seeded Dallas (48-32) which beat New Orleans Friday night to pull into the temporary tie.

San Antonio Spurs 95, Sacramento Kings 92 Frenchman Tony Parker scored 25 points, and assisted on Michael Finley's game-winning three-pointer with 1.3 seconds remaining, giving the Spurs the road victory.

San Antonio, despite resting Tim Duncan, moved into three-way tie with idle Houston and Portland for the third seed in the Western Conference playoff race. (dpa)