BOSTON -- LeBron James said he "always" worries about other teams in the East.

Even though he's taken the Miami Heat and now the Cavs to seven consecutive Finals.

"Of course" he's always worried about the next challenger, he said, including the Boston Celtics, who trounced Cleveland 102-88 on Wednesday.

"I'm always concerned about other teams getting better and better," James said. "But I'm more concerned about us getting better and better. That's the bigger thing. Washington and obviously this team right here (the Celtics), Miami is trying to get better and better, Toronto is playing exceptional basketball right now.

"The East is pretty damn good this year and right now, we're not so good, great, not so good. See what happens next. But you've always got to be concerned with the competition for sure."

The loss was the Cavs' fifth out of seven games. They'd won 18 of 19 before that stretch.

Right now, the Celtics lead them by 4.5 games in the East. While James said he "always" worries, neither he nor the rest of the Cavs sounded too alarmed about the threat the Celtics might pose.

"I think they were a threat last year," James said, keeping his face stone straight to suggest a deeper meaning. "The injury affected them a lot."

The "injury" he mentioned was the hip injury to his current teammate, Isaiah Thomas, who was Boston's star point guard last season. Kyrie Irving was on the Cavs with James at the time.

The Celtics edged the Cavs for first place in the East, only to be obliterated in five games by Cleveland in the conference finals. Thomas played in just 1 1/2 of those games, forced from a 44-point blowout in Game 2 by his hip injuries.

Thomas didn't play again until he scored 17 points for the Cavs on Tuesday. In between Game 2 of the conference finals and, well, Tuesday night, the Cavs swapped Irving for Thomas.

To be clear, Cleveland most certainly did not view the Celtics as much of a threat last season, even though Boston captured the No. 1 seed. On the second night of a back to back in April, with the top seed on the line, the Cavs came into TD Garden and trucked Boston by 23 points. Heading into the conference finals Cleveland's deep thinkers knew the Celtics didn't match up well with the Cavs' firepower.

James knows this too, but he wanted to make clear Boston is no more of a threat now that the Celtics have Irving instead of Thomas. Which is why he was sure to mention the Celtics were a "threat" last year.

The Cavs had a bad night Wednesday. They shot 31-of-89 from the field for their second-worst shooting game this season. The Celtics are the league's top defensive team, and James said they were "very in tune with what we wanted to do execution-wise offensively."

James finished with 19 points -- but just three after halftime.

Irving didn't exactly stand out in this one either. He finished with 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting, pulling down nine rebounds and six assists.

Someone asked James afterwards if Irving was in more of a distributor's role, and if he might've grown into that role now that he's with the Celtics. On Wednesday, ESPN published a piece detailing Irving's departure from Cleveland, including an exchange between Irving and Tyronn Lue in which the Cavs coach demanded Irving play faster so he can get shots for teammates, and Irving responded "that's No. 23's job."

So when James was asked if Irving had grown, he said "It's two guys on the ball, you've got to give the ball up. It's just basketball."

James may never acknowledge the rivalry he now has with Irving, or could decide to tell all. But as these teams careen toward a playoffs rematch, James will be certain to say, and later try to prove, that they're no better off now that they have Irving than when they have Thomas.

In the meantime, the defending Eastern champs simply don't sound alarmed.

"That doesn't concern me," Lue said, when asked about the Cavs' deficit in the standings. "As long as we make the playoffs, we're fine."