CLEVELAND — It’s a good thing the Cavaliers weren’t putting a ton of emphasis on winning their season opener. It’s a good thing, too, that they didn’t plan on going 82-0.

Playing in front of a packed house that wanted so much to explode, Cleveland instead imploded offensively in falling 95-89 to the dreaded Boston Celtics on Tuesday night at Quicken Loans Arena.

“Offensively, you have to be on the same page,” said small forward LeBron James, who had 38 points on 12-of-22 shooting, four rebounds, eight assists, two steals, four blocks and five turnovers in 45 minutes. “For little spurts of the game, we weren’t.”

James, who had 24 of Cleveland’s 44 points in the second half, was pretty much on his own for large stretches of this one, which ended Boston’s 11-game losing streak at The Q. It was the first time in 17 games between these teams that the visiting squad won.

“We were a little passive sometimes,” James said. “We were trying to make the right play and being a little too unselfish. Sometimes guys have to look for their own look and, when they have it, go for it.”

Shaquille O’Neal got off to a tremendous start — he had six points and four rebounds in the first 6:12 of the game — but his 7-foot-1, 325-pound frame pretty much disappeared after that, as he finished with 10 points and 10 boards in 29 minutes.

O’Neal came out of the game to a standing ovation with 4:54 left in the opening quarter and the Cavaliers dominating, but never seemed to get back in the flow after that as coach Mike Brown continues to learn how to best utilize his 37-year-old center.

“I would have liked to have stayed in,” O’Neal said. “We’re still learning each other. He’s the coach.”

Said Brown: “I didn’t do a good job with substitutions. We didn’t always have flow. We were a little disjointed.”

While Brown didn’t coach the best game of his life, a lot of his players were lacking as well.

Mo Williams looked like a guy struggling to find his niche in the offense, as he attempted just eight shots in finishing with 12 points and three assists.

The bench, supposed to be so much improved, contributed a grand total of 10 points in 59 minutes.

Cleveland once again played without Delonte West, but to attribute the loss to that would not be doing justice to the proud Celtics, who let it be known they’re not going anywhere in the Eastern Conference.

Paul Pierce led Boston with 23 points and 11 rebounds, while Ray Allen had 16 points and Kevin Garnett had 13 points, 10 boards and three blocks. Rasheed Wallace added 12 points off the bench and Rajon Rondo had eight points, six rebounds, 10 assists and a handful of little plays that didn’t show up in the box score.

In a battle of the league’s two best defensive teams last season, the Celtics limited the Cavaliers to .414 shooting (29-of-70). After making six of its first seven shots and storming to a 13-2 lead, Cleveland finished the night 23-of-63.

“Boston’s a great team,” James said. “They took us out of a lot of our sets.”

The Cavaliers trailed 80-69 when Wallace hit a 3-pointer with 10:03 to go, but Boston missed its next seven shots and didn’t score for 4:31. Problem was, Cleveland managed just seven points in that span and, when Kendrick Perkins finally converted a three-point play with 5:32 to go, the Celtics were back up eight.

The Cavaliers, who played their best defense of the night with O’Neal at center and 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas guarding power forward Garnett, got back within 87-83 on a pair of James free throws with 2:08 to go.

Boston came up empty on a wild sequence at its end of the court —it ended with bodies strewn all over the floor —but James missed a 3-pointer with 1:22 left.

That was the beginning of the end for Cleveland, which dug itself a big hole at the start of the third period and never quite recovered.

Already down six at halftime after a huge second-quarter swoon, the only thing the Cavaliers did right at the start of the second half was O’Neal’s hard, clothesline foul on Garnett.

Boston went on a 10-2 run —and it did so with ridiculous ease —to go up 61-47 with 9:22 left in the third, forcing an angry Brown to call timeout.

Cleveland still trailed by 12 when James chased down Allen, swatted his layup attempt —the 6-foot-8, 250-pounder got Rondo on a dunk attempt in the first quarter —and hit a 3-pointer at the other end with 2:06 left in the quarter.

In all, Boston scored just 10 points over the last 8:25 of the third, but was still up seven because the Cavaliers never got clicking.

“We took a lot of jump shots,” Brown said. “That hurt us.”

Three minutes into the game, it looked like the league should just concede the championship to the Cavaliers, who road a ton of early emotion to a quick 13-2 lead.

Cleveland, which went on to lead 19-5, was bringing down the house early, especially when James electrified an already-amped crowd by chasing down the speedy Rondo and blocking the point guard’s dunk attempt with 3:07 left.

The Cavaliers, however, ran into their own road block after that.

With James and O’Neal on the bench at the start of the second period, Cleveland stopped attacking and started standing around and hoisting jumpers. At the same time, the Cavaliers let up on defense.

With eight minutes to go in the first half, Boston had rallied to tie the game behind guys like Eddie House, Marquis Daniels and Shelden Williams.

“We knew they were going to come out jacked up,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “We never really panicked.”

The Celtics took their first lead, 39-38, on a 3-pointer by Pierce with 4:54 to go in the second period —Boston was 7-of-9 from beyond the arc in the opening half —and went on to lead 51-45 at intermission.

The Celtics shot 60 percent from the field (9-of-15) in outscoring the Cavaliers 30-17 in the second quarter. Cleveland was 5-of-16 in that period.

“One of our staples defensively is to contest (shots),” Brown said. “There was a stretch in that first half where we did not contest.”

Tonight

• Who: Cleveland at Toronto
• Time: 7 o’clock
• Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto
• TV/radio: FS Ohio; WEOL 930-AM, WTAM 1100-AM

Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rickn@ohio.net.

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