Jamaican Samardo Samuels believes a solid team effort was key in his team securing their first win of the season, a 105-89 win over the Detroit Pistons at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Wednesday night.

Samuels made a solid argument for a regular starting spot after scoring a team-high 17 point and grabbing four rebounds.

"We played as a group," Samuels said. "Everyone was on the same page. That's how we're going to win games, especially on the defensive end. We pound guys on defence. In the second half, we were going to the ball all the time."

The Cleveland second-year forward came off the bench with Ramon Sessions contributing 16 points and six assists, and Antwan Jamison adding 15.

Ben Gordon scored 25 points and rookie Brandon Knight added 23 points for the Pistons.

"Obviously from the beginning to the end, we were so much better," said Cavaliers coach Byron Scott. "We were so much more aggressive from the start to the finish, and that's exactly what we talked about doing and doing the things that we do. I thought our guys did it for 48 minutes tonight, and when you play defence as hard as we did tonight, it seems like the offence is easy."

Also for the Cavaliers, No. 1 draft pick Kyrie Irving had 14 points and seven assists.

"They shot 62 percent in the first quarter," said Detroit coach Lawrence Frank. "We're not going to win any games defensively when you're allowing that. I thought we had a great opportunity in the first quarter to be up big and then we had some mishaps and now we're giving up transition buckets, middle drives and so it's not just offensive rebounding. It's the penetration with the transition and the pick and roll leading to rotations and not getting to bodies."

Jamison's triple put Cleveland up 63-51 with 7:53 to go in the third quarter.

Samuels connected late in the quarter for a 79-68 Cleveland lead. Two Daniel Gibson triples made it 86-73 early in the fourth. Alonzo Gee hit from off the glass for a 93-76 lead with 6:21 to play.

Samuels' slam dunk with four minutes to play made it a 97-80 game.

No. 1 draft pick Kyrie Irving scored 12 points and dished out five assists in the first half to ignite the Cavaliers to a 50-39 half-time lead over the Pistons.

The Cavaliers had 15 turnovers in the first half but still shot 20 of 35 from the floor for 57.1 per cent.