BOSTON -- Give LeBron James credit for not sugar-coating his horrid effort in the first two games of the series.

James has gone 8-for-42 (0-for-10 from behind the 3-point line) and turned the ball over17 times in the Cavaliers’ two losses. Those are not numbers the first-team All-NBA pick is familiar with. While he insists he’s missing shots he usually makes, he also credited Boston’s strong defense with a large slice of the blame pie.

“I think defensively they’re very, very aggressive. They’re very good,” James said. “I’m just missing the shots that I normally make. The layups that usually go down for are just falling out of the rim. The jumpers that I usually make are not going down for me. I’m going to stay positive.”

James said the Celtics’ defense compares favorably to the San Antonio Spurs sets that bothered James in the NBA Finals last June.

“They have athletic big (men) in KG, [Kendrick] Perkins and [Leon] Powe,” he said. “They do a good job of rotating. I’m getting by the first guy but I can’t crack the second line of defense.”

The Celtics blocked just two shots last night, but Perkins or Kevin Garnett have met James at the rim whenever he drives to the basket. “Kevin is the Defensive Player of the Year for a reason,” James said. “He sits back and reads what’s going on.”

-KEVIN McNAMARA