BOSTON — LeBron James is often called LBJ, but that’s going to have to be shortened to LB for the time being.
The “J” is nowhere to be found.
With their superstar once again unable to make anything, the Cavaliers had no chance Thursday night in Game 2 of their best-of-seven series with the Boston Celtics, losing 89-73 at TD Banknorth Garden.
James, who finished with 21 points, five rebounds and six assists, went 6-of-24 from the field, making him 8-of-42 in the series (.190).
If something doesn’t change in Game 3 Saturday night at 8 at Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavaliers are going to be in deep, deep trouble.
“LeBron’s what makes them go,” Boston small forward Paul Pierce said. “If we can somehow control him, we control their team.”
James, the NBA’s leading scorer at 30.0 a game in the regular season, is averaging 16.5 points in the series and is 0-of-10 on
3-pointers. Only one of the eight shots he’s managed to make in two games has been a jumper — a 19-footer from the top of the circle with five minutes to go in the third period of Game 2.
“Shots I normally make haven’t fallen in this building the last two games,” the 23-year-old said. “The layups that usually go down for me are just jumping out of the rim. The jumpers I usually make are not going down for me. I’m just going to stay positive and get through it.”
James also committed seven turnovers in Game 2, giving him 17 in a series in which the Cavaliers are averaging just 72.5 points.
“With me missing shots I normally make, I’m frustrated somewhat,” he said. “I’m more frustrated with the turnovers I’ve had more than anything.”
While a good deal of credit must go to Boston, which led the league in field goal-percentage defense in the regular season, nothing can alter the fact James is simply missing a lot of shots he normally makes.
They are banging right, clanging left, sailing long, hitting the front of the rim or finding nothing but air. The one thing they’re not doing is going in.
“I thought LeBron had a few wide-open jumpers — or good looks — that he’s hit before,” Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said. “Then he got to the rim a few times and the ball just rolled out.”
The Cavaliers, who scored just 27 points over the middle two quarters, were down eight at halftime, then watched — figuratively and literally — as the Celtics scored the first 10 points of the third quarter to complete a 36-10 run.
Ray Allen, who did not score over the first six quarters of the series, had 11 of his 16 points in the third period as Boston, which led by as many as 24, blew the game open.
“I told the coaches at halftime, ‘We’re going to him over and over. We’ve got to get him going,’” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “Shooters just need something to go in. It doesn’t matter what it is.”
Pierce, who was 2-of-14 from the field in a four-point performance in Game 1, led the Celtics with 19 points, while Kevin Garnett added 13 points and 12 rebounds.
Leon Powe had 11 points off the bench as Boston’s reserves outscored Cleveland’s 34-17. No Cavalier backup had more than five points.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas led the Cavaliers with 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, with Wally Szczerbiak adding 13. Delonte West had seven rebounds, five assists and four blocks, but he scored just three points on 1-of-5 shooting, making him 3-of-15 in the series.
As a team, the Cavaliers hit just .356 from the field (26-of-73), barely surpassing the franchise-record low of .307 they set in Game 1.
“We can’t win shooting 30 percent in the first game and we can’t win shooting 35 percent in this game,” James said. “It’s just not going to happen — not against a team like this.”
Adding injury to insult, the Cavaliers lost Ben Wallace with 8:20 to go in the first period. The power forward left the game due to dizziness, then came back and tried to warm up for the second half, but couldn’t play. He’ll be evaluated further today.
“To lose him was tough,” Brown said, “but that’s not why we lost the game.”
The Cavaliers, who actually made 7 of 10 shots to start the game, went stone-cold in the second period, when they completely stopped executing their offense and made just 2 of 17 shots. As a result, they were outscored 27-12 in the quarter and fell behind 44-36 at intermission.
It could have been a lot worse, but Boston made just 7 of 16 free throws in the first half.
Cleveland led by eight when James went to the bench with 10:47 to go in the first half, but was quickly outscored 8-1 in the 2:54 its star was on the bench.
Things didn’t get any better when James came back — in all, the Cavaliers went 7:25 without a field goal — as he started heaving bricks from everywhere.
Boston’s run, which began with a mish-mash lineup of Allen, Sam Cassell, James Posey, Powe and P.J. Brown, eventually grew to 21-4 on a free throw by Pierce, which gave the Celtics a 39-30 lead.
And to think things started out so well for the Cavaliers, who repeatedly circled James and Szczerbiak around screens, then hit Ilgauskas for open jumpers.
The 7-foot-3 center made his first six shots, all from at least 15 feet and none of which even drew iron. Ilgauskas had four buckets in the first three minutes as the Cavaliers took an 8-2 lead, then added another soon after to help Cleveland go up 21-9 with three minutes left in the opening quarter.
In the second period, all the motion stopped and Boston’s reserves came in and started to turn the game around, so much so that Garnett and Pierce were the only Celtics starters to score in the first half.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, went back to having James dribble, dribble, dribble while trying to run a pick-and-roll.
“Pick-and-roll is almost 85 percent of our offense,” James said. “It’s kind of hard to just throw it out the window.”
Something’s going to have to change if Cleveland is to become the 14th team in NBA history to rally from a 2-0 deficit and win a best-of-seven series, but the Cavaliers, who accomplished the feat against Detroit last year, are still confident they can do it.
“I’m not getting down on this series,” James said. “Being down 0-2 is a tough hole to dig yourself out of, but we’ve got to do it if we want to move on.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

Celtics 89, Cavaliers 73

CLEVELAND (73): James 6-24 9-13 21, Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Ilgauskas 9-12 1-2 19, West 1-5 1-2 3, Szczerbiak 4-11 4-4 13, Varejao 1-5 1-2 3, Smith 2-7 0-0 4, Gibson 0-2 2-2 2, Pavlovic 2-4 0-0 5, D.Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Dw.Jones 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 26-73 19-27 73.
BOSTON (89): Pierce 7-13 4-6 19, Garnett 5-9 3-3 13, Perkins 0-2 0-2 0, Rondo 0-6 7-7 7, R.Allen 4-10 7-8 16, Powe 4-7 3-6 11, Cassell 4-12 1-2 9, Posey 3-6 0-0 7, P.Brown 2-3 0-0 4, House 0-2 0-0 0, T.Allen 0-0 1-2 1, Davis 0-2 2-2 2. Totals 29-72 28-38 89.
Cleveland    24    12    15    22    —    73
Boston    17    27    26    19    —    89
3-Point Goals—Cleveland 2-13 (Pavlovic 1-2, Szczerbiak 1-4, Gibson 0-1, West 0-1, D.Brown 0-1, James 0-4), Boston 3-14 (R.Allen 1-3, Posey 1-4, Pierce 1-5, Cassell 0-2). Fouled Out—None. Rebounds—Cleveland 52 (Varejao 10), Boston 56 (Garnett 12). Assists—Cleveland 18 (James 6), Boston 20 (Rondo 6). Total Fouls—Cleveland 27, Boston 26. Technicals—Cleveland defensive three second, Boston defensive three second 2. A—18,624 (18,624). 

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