By: Staff Writer - StatFox
Published: 5/8/2008 at 9:04:00 AM

LeBron James says he won't miss baskets like he did in the series opener between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. Neither, James believes, will Paul Pierce or Ray Allen. James missed all but two of his 18 shots from the field Tuesday night in Cleveland's 76-72 loss, including a layup that would have tied it with 9 seconds remaining. Pierce and Allen also went a combined 2-for-18, with Allen failing to score for the first time in 852 games. "I can't play no worse than I did last night," James said Wednesday. "You don't expect those guys to have off nights like that. I don't expect myself to have an off night like I did."

After Tuesday night, though, everyone expects Thursday night's Game 2 and the rest of the Eastern Conference semifinals series to be a bruising, stifling fight between two top defenses. "You're going to have to run through a brick wall to get to 100 points it seems like, the way these two teams play defense," Pierce said. "You just expect it to be a defensive struggle throughout." Pierce could very well be correct; as he has seen the Celtics go 11-2 UNDER in home games after allowing 85 points or less this season.

With two-thirds of Boston's Big Three nearly shut out, it took Kevin Garnett to bail out the Celtics. He finished with 28 points, including the go-ahead basket with 21 seconds left. "Offensively, we were a terrible-looking group," Pierce said. "We turned the ball over 23 times, shot 40 percent from the field. We did just about everything wrong you could do offensively, and what happens, the defense comes and saves the day."
James, meanwhile, had one of the worst shooting nights of his career, leading his team to a miserable 30.7 shooting percentage. James has made fewer than two baskets just one, on Dec. 29, 2004, when he missed all five of his shots against Houston.

James refused, though, to call it his worst game ever. "No, nah, nah. It's not the worst. At the end of the day we still had a chance to win the ball game," James said. "I wasn't satisfied with the way I played but saying it's my worst game, nah." The Cavaliers are 13-4 UNDER after a combined score of 160 points or less over the last two seasons.

Cleveland coach Mike Brown said the Cavs must do a better job moving the ball across the court and spacing themselves to get better looks at the basket. "We have to make sure we're attacking and having multiple drives in the same possession," he said. "There's some things we can do better to hopefully increase that (shooting) percentage." That’s right coach, like making shots. Irregardless, coach Brown has proven he wants the game played at a certain tempo, with Cleveland 11-1 UNDER in East Semi-finals.

Pierce said the Celtics must continue to contain James and figure out ways to score themselves if they want to win the series. "They're going to try to do things to make it easier on him, maybe get him out in transition a little bit more, get him in position where he's not double-teamed any more," he said "It's up to us to try to counter the things they're going to do." The Celtics are up to 20-6-1 UNDER after holding a team to 75 or fewer points.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers said James won't try to win all by himself - and Boston can't force him to try. "LeBron's not going to allow that," he said. "What makes him special at his age is he understands it takes five, and he's going to always involve the five guys."

Bookmaker.com opened Game 2 of this showdown a full four points lower than the series opener, now postured at 177. They have also dropped Boston to 8.5-point home favorites. Cleveland is 5-1-1 ATS at TD Banknorth Garden the last three years, having covered four of last five roles as playoff underdog. The Cavs are also 8-3 UNDER when postseason dogs of 5 to 10.5 points.

With the Total a full 33 points below the Game 1 number, nobody really believes James - or Pierce or Allen - will be as cold as they were in Game 1 again. "I don't expect Paul and Ray to have the struggles, and I don't expect LeBron to have struggles either," Celtics center Kendrick Perkins said. "So I think we're in for a good Game 2."

James didn't seemed fazed either, saying he wanted to play again immediately after Game 1 ended. "If I have a bad game or I have a bad two games, it's not like I'm soul-searching or anything like that," he said. "I know I can bounce back."

Boston is 14-5 UNDER in home games after playing five consecutive games as favorite this season and basketball bettors can check out if trend will continue on ESPN starting at 7 Eastern. The favorite in this series is on 7-0-1 against the spread run.

StatFox Power Line – Boston by 10

AP Sports Writer contributed to this article.