LeBron has ‘zero’ concern after Cavs’ lopsided Game 1 loss

Bbeing 1-0 was “zero.” “I didn’t go to college, so it’s not March Madness,” he said. “You see ways you can get better throughout the series. But I’ve been down 0-1, I’ve been down 0-2. I’ve been down before in the postseason.

“But for me, there’s no level of concern no matter how bad I played tonight with seven turnovers, how inefficient I was shooting the ball . ... We have another opportunity to be better as a ballclub come Tuesday night and we’ll see what happens.”

James said the Celtics deserved credit for the defensive strategy they employed against him, which started with Marcus Morris challenging him from outset, limiting him to 2of-6 shooting in the first quarter as Cleveland fell into a 36-18 hole.

“I think they had a great game plan in Game 1, and he was the start of it,” James said. “He was my matchup and I think they did a great job of communicating throughout the whole game, knowing where I was and all of my teammates was. (Celtics coach) Brad (Stevens) did a great job.”

“We have an opportunity to look at some film tomorrow and see ways they was making us uncomfortable.”

The Celtics showed James several different looks throughout the game, switching as many as five different players on him.

Morris, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart and Aron Baynes all took turns guarding James at times. Boston frequently sent a double team when he got the ball in the post. It forced him to settle for jump shots early and limited his ability to get to the rim.

That in turn kept James from creating shots for his teammates. For the game Cleveland was outscored by 18 points with James on the floor.

“We are just going to try to make it as tough for him as we can,” Rozier said. “The other guys, obviously, (Kevin) Love and J.R. Smith, we don’t want to give them open looks. ... That has been a big emphasis the last couple of days. We did a good job of that and we just have to keep it up.”

When the Cavs did finally show a little momentum, cutting Boston’s lead to 14 at the end of the third quarter, the Celtics responded with a 7-0 run at the start of the fourth.

James was asked afterward what happened during that flurry and he responded with a verbatim recitation of each play , down to Tatum’s coast-tocoast layup off a Eurostep move in the lane.

When he was finished James leaned back in his chair, spread his arms and wryly said, “There you go.”