INDEPENDENCE, Ohio - For a career as decorated as LeBron James has enjoyed, he has been at his best in one particular realm: the first round of the NBA playoffs.
James' teams are a combined 48-7 in the first round and have won 21 straight games heading into the Cleveland Cavaliers' opening tilt with the Indiana Pacers on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC). James, who made his postseason debut in 2006, has never lost a first-round series (12-0) or a Game 1 of opening round series.
Does James feel any added responsibility at the outset of the playoffs this spring, with a roster that includes several rotation players - Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Rodney Hood - with little to no playoff experience?
"My responsibility has been the same for quite a while now, to go out and try to dominate," James said after practice Saturday.
What has been out of the ordinary is the regular season James just had. He enters the playoffs after playing in all 82 games for the first time in his career.
The 33-year-old forward insists the workload of the regular season hasn't affected his preparation as he tries to reach his eighth straight NBA Finals.
"Mentally and physically, I'm where I should be at this point in the season," James said. "I'm not comparing it to last year. I'm not comparing it to previous years. I'm not comparing it to the year after. Right now, how do I feel? I feel where I should be, and I'm healthy going into the postseason, as healthy as you can be going into the postseason. So, we'll see what happens."
James and the Cavs breezed through the Pacers in the first round last season, but that series featured Kyrie Irving playing for Cleveland and Paul George playing for Indiana, just to name a few of the changes that have occurred since then.
James credited this year's Pacers team for being "more balanced" with All-Star guard Victor Oladipo leading the way, but he didn't let that praise morph into paranoia.
"I mean, I have zero level of concern at this stage," James said. "Listen, we're a 4-5 [seed for a] reason. Both teams played good at times during the regular season. Obviously, their season from the outside looking in was more productive than ours, by the moves that they made in the offseason, but also they just had a lot of things that went on in the preseason. It's a good matchup and we look forward to the challenge."
The opening game will mark the first time the Cavs will have a fully healthy roster since Cleveland overhauled its roster at the trade deadline, trading away six assets and welcoming four new players in their place.
"That's great for Coach [Tyronn] Lue and the coaching staff because we have everyone available for the first time this season," James said. "I think it's great, and it's weird at the same time."
James pointed out a possible disadvantage to having too many options.
"We have lineups that we can go to that we haven't been able to use throughout the course of the year," he said. "But it also creates some unknown on the floor. You're playing lineups that sometimes you haven't played or that you've played very few minutes with. We'll see how it benefits us."
The Cavs and Golden State Warriors have met in the Finals the past three years, but a fourth showdown isn't a certainty. Cleveland is the East's No. 4 seed and no longer has Irving.
The Warriors are the West's No. 2 seed and lost Stephen Curry to a knee injury to start the postseason.
"Who is the team to beat? Everyone is the team to beat," James said. "Golden State is the defending champion so everyone is trying to see if they can be a new champion. Golden State is trying to defend that. I don't know who the team to beat is. There's 16 teams, there's going to be some great series played and everyone's trying to win."
James - who compared the playoffs to his love of March Madness, given that he skipped college and went straight to the NBA - said he plans to deliver a survival and advancement message when he addresses the team before Game 1.
"Put ourselves in a position to try to be successful every night and try to keep it going," James said. "It's like 'The Hunger Games': Let's see if we can make it. I don't want to hear that noise up there. You know what that means."