San Antonio ? Two things shouldn’t have been all that surprising about the Cavaliers’ experience in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

First, the San Antonio Spurs appropriately appear to be the greatest challenge yet in this postseason. Second, LeBron James struggled out of the gate.

As usual, much attention was paid to how James handled another team’s intense defensive efforts against him. And as usual, James appeared to be a slow starter against it.

Not unlike the way he plays in the regular season, when he’ll often use the first quarter as an adjustment period, James is fast building a resume of Game 1 letdowns. Including his 14-point showing Thursday, when he missed 12-of-16 shots, James is averaging only 15 points and shooting only 32 percent in the openers of the past three series.

Now he plans to follow another routine: making adjustments and getting into his normal flow.

The Spurs are certainly the class of the league, but in the past James has rebounded strongly after poor games. In the regular season, for example, James averaged 29.2 points and shot 48 percent from the field in the 13 games immediately following sub-20-point performances.

That gives the Cavs some hope for making a better showing in Sunday’s Game 2.

“It was great for him to go through what he went through” in Game 1, Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “He struggled a little bit, I think, in the first game against Detroit. It’s just a matter of time, I think, when you have a player of his magnitude, until he can figure out the defense and get himself going.”

Recent history agrees.

James has played better as each series has gone along, especially in solving the aggressive and sometimes complex defensive schemes the opponents cooked up to throw at him.