LeBron James made just 6 of 24 shots in Game 2 after going 2 for 18 in Game 1.

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BOSTON — Paul Pierce and Ray Allen found their shooting touch. LeBron James can only hope he left his in Cleveland.

Pierce scored 19 points, Kevin Garnett added 13 with 12 rebounds, and Allen broke out of a seven-quarter scoring drought with 16 points to help the Boston Celtics beat the Cavaliers 89-73 on Thursday night and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

One game after going 2 for 18 from the field and missing his last six shots, including a layup to tie the game with 8.5 seconds left, James missed his first three tries and finished with 21 points on 6-for-24 shooting.

"I'm a little shocked that he's 8 for 42, but this is what we work on. We work on trying to contain him," said Pierce, who was 2 for 14 in Game 1. "LeBron is what makes them go. And if we can somehow control him, we control their team. And with the help of the guys around me, we've been able to do that."

Game 3 is Saturday night in Cleveland. The Cavaliers will need their crowd to pull them out of their funk because the Celtics are 6-0 in the playoffs in Boston, and they would have the homecourt advantage through the NBA finals.

"Being down 0-2, that's a tough hole to dig yourself out of. But if we want to win the series we've got to do it," James said, noting the Cavaliers lost the first two games to Detroit in last year's playoffs but won four straight to reach the NBA finals.

"We've been in this situation before," said James, who offered encouragement along the bench as the final seconds ticked off. "I've got to let them know that I'm not frustrated."

James will have a more welcoming crowd for the next two games than the Boston fans who serenaded him with a chant of "Over-rated!" as he went 1 for 11 during the second and third quarters.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 19 points for the Cavaliers, and reserve Anderson Varejao had 10 rebounds in 32 minutes after forward Ben Wallace went to the locker room just 3:40 into the game due to dizziness.

Wallace, who attributed the problem to allergies, sat on the bench for the second quarter and took some shots during halftime warmups but did not return to the game.

● A man who accused Richard Jefferson of grabbing him by the throat in an incident in a Minneapolis club this year had too much to drink, the New Jersey Nets forward and former Cat said in a radio interview.

Jefferson was charged with assault on Wednesday for the Jan. 27 incident when the Nets were in Minneapolis to play the Timberwolves.

According to the charge, Jefferson is accused of grabbing the victim, shoving him to a bench and choking him with both hands after walking into the man's private party at the club.

Speaking on Sirius satellite radio late Wednesday, Jefferson said he was approached in the hotel bar by an individual he described as "very rude and very disrespectful" and that "an altercation broke out" but no punches were thrown.

"You know, it is unfortunate," he said. "I've never been involved in an incident in my life. I don't even think I've ever been thrown out of a basketball game. But some drunk individual wants to come up and, you know, then, of course, when they start telling their side of the story we're the big bad athletes that think they can get away with everything and then they're some innocent individual that has never made a mistake in their life."

A court hearing is set for June 18.

● Maybe Cavaliers fans can hope for cheap gas if an oil company insults James.

Lines were so long Thursday at some of the 86 Papa John's stores in the Cleveland area offering a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents that police stood nearby to make sure people didn't get unruly.

The Louisville, Ky.-based company agreed to the offer after a franchisee in Washington, D.C., made T-shirts calling star James a "crybaby." The shirts referred to James' complaints about hard fouls during a playoff series that the Washington Wizards lost to the Cavaliers. The 23-cent price is a homage to James' jersey number.

● Chauncey Billups said Thursday he isn't sure if he will be ready to play in Game 4 on Saturday in Orlando. He was forced to leave the Pistons' loss to Orlando in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals because of a strained right hamstring.

● Kiki Vandeweghe became the New Jersey Nets' general manager Thursday less than six months after being hired as a special assistant to team president Rod Thorn.