Cleveland Cavaliers: 3 takeaways from Game 1 vs. Celtics

2. Bad shooting or good defense?

That is the question that must be asked about the Cavaliers’ gag-worthy, 4-for-26 3-point shooting performance. That’s 15.4 percent from deep,

15.4 percent.

Grammatically the number looks weird by itself, but a statistic that horrendous deserves its own paragraph. The Cavaliers better hope they just had an off day. Great shooters are often streaky, meaning Korver, Smith and everyone else who touched a basketball should bounce back.

So maybe the TD Garden rims just weren’t bouncing the Cavs way. No big deal.

Unless there was something more to the Cavaliers miserable afternoon. Opponents shot 34 percent from 3-point range against Boston during the regular season. Cleveland went 16-for-30 from downtown against Boston in its only game, a win, post-trade flurry.

That’s 53.3 percent, the second-best a team shot against Boston from downtown all year. Maybe the Stevens factor is at play, and the Boston coach devised a game plan to stymie the Cavs’ outside stroke.

In February, the Celtics resorted to trailing the man off the screen, play after play, and they were often burned.

In Game 1, Boston hedged and switched off picks leading to awkward, contested shots for Cleveland.

The change is subtle, but appeared to make a major difference in Game 1.