Bulpett: After tough loss to Celtics, LeBron James plays it cool

It is most definitely the first week of January. It is not springtime, a fact that is painfully evident to anyone in this area who looks out the window on this fine morning.

And the Cavaliers were on the second night of a back-to-back against the Celtics, who’d had two whole days since beating Brooklyn on New Year’s Eve.

But while it’s best not to read too much into the Bostonians’ 102-88 victory over the three-time defending Eastern Conference champions last night, LeBron James wasn’t going to just let it slide either.

“Their defense was very good,” he said after scoring 19 points in 32 minutes and 42 seconds of play, his shortest stint since the last week of November. “They were very in tune to what we wanted to do execution-wise offensively. We had some good looks at times. Some of the looks were a little bit tougher. But they had a good defensive plan, and they executed it very well.”

The Cavs took 32 treys and clanged 24 of them. They shot 34.8 percent. The 88 points were their season low.

“Listen,” said LeBron, “they played at a high level tonight, and they’ve been playing extremely well at home — and on the road at times, as well — so they just gave us a good one tonight.”

As for how different the Celts looked last night from the season-opening meeting in Cleveland, James said, “I mean, everybody looks different at this point in the season, so it’s not a surprise.”

It may, however, have caught a few people off-guard that Kyrie Irving had just 11 points in this one, making 5-of-14 shots (0-for-5 on treys) while pulling in nine rebounds to go with six assists. With the exception of going scoreless in 1:50 against Charlotte before getting his face fractured, he tied his season ebb.

LeBron was asked about Irving being more of a distributor and whether there has been growth in that side of his game.

“Well, I mean, there’s two guys on the ball,” James said. “You’ve got to give the ball up. That’s just basketball.”

He was far more expansive with discussing Terry Rozier, who hit 8-of-12 shots and had 20 points.

“Very good,” said LeBron. “Very good. He’s getting more and more confident every single year. This is his third year, so he’s picking up better habits, more habits. He’s very quick, shooting the ball extremely well. Very aggressive, too.”

The Celtics — all of them — were quicker to the ball last night. They were more assertive than the Cavaliers, going ahead by 23 points and winning hustle plays in the stretches when their shots weren’t falling.

But while the visitors showed proper respect, you have to wonder if this game will have much of an echo beyond the evening.

Put plainly, are the Cavs ever concerned about another Eastern Conference team?

“Absolutely,” said James. “Always. Why not?”

Because your team essentially handed the top seed in the East to the Celts last year by resting people and didn’t seem worried in the least about the absence of homecourt advantage in the conference finals, which it won in five games. And because, no matter the situation, the Cavs don’t seem daunted in the least.

“I’m always concerned about teams getting better and better,” James said. “But I’m more concerned about us getting better and better. That’s the bigger thing.

“So it’s Washington and obviously this team right here. You know, Miami’s trying to get better and better. Toronto’s playing exceptional basketball right now.

“You know, the East is pretty dang good this year, and right now we’re not so good, great, not so good, see what happens next. But you’ve always got to be concerned with the competition, for sure.”

The key is whether the Cavaliers see the Celtics as a different type of threat this time around.

“I think they were a threat last year,” said LeBron. “The injury affected them a lot.”

The injury of which he speaks was the hip problem that knocked Isaiah Thomas out of the conference finals in the second game — the same problem that kept the now-Cav out until Tuesday.

Said injury is now affecting the LeBrons.

“I don’t know who we are or what we can be until we get IT back consistently,” he said. “But we know what the program is, so it’s not like a surprise he wasn’t playing tonight. We already know he won’t play in the Indiana game after we’re in (Toronto, Jan. 11-12). He’s not playing back-to-backs right now.

“So until we get a full dosage of IT and get our rotations down and things of that nature. . . . You know, we were playing well, and Tristan (Thompson) comes back; we integrate him. We haven’t played as well as of late, so we’re trying to figure that out, as well.

“We’ll be fine, though.”

Just maybe not in the regular season when the games come in small bunches.

And while James may be wondering about the competition, his coach isn’t losing sleep over the 41⁄2 games between the Cavaliers and first-place Celtics.

“It doesn’t concern me,” said Tyronn Lue. “As long as we make the playoffs, we’re fine.”

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