Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James (centre) tries to score over San Antonio Spurs' Robert Horry and Manu Ginobili during Game One of the NBA Finals in San Antonio on Thursday night. The Spurs won 85-76. - Reuters

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters):

THE SAN Antonio Spurs used a harassing, double-team defence to fluster LeBron James and crush the Cleveland Cavaliers 85-76 in the opening game of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.

James averaged 26 points in the play-offs but scored only 14 on four-of-16 shooting from the floor against San Antonio.

Whenever James got the ball, Spurs defensive standout Bruce Bowen was immediately in his face and his San Antonio teammates were quick to gang up on the Cavaliers forward.

"It was definitely crowded," said James.

Shrinking the floor

"They did a great job of shrinking the floor. If I went by one guy, another guy stepped up, something I'm going to have to make an adjustment for for Game Two," he said.

James, appearing in his first NBA Finals, looked uncomfortable with the pressure defence and either launched an ill-advised shot or attempted to offload the ball to a teammate.

The former number one pick in the 2003 NBA draft had a team-high six turnovers.

"He struggled mightily tonight," said Cavaliers coach Mike Brown.

"They did a great job. Their bigs did a good job jumping out and containing him and blitzing him, so he wasn't able to get to the paint.

"And the couple of times he did get to the paint, he wasn't able to finish because they're bringing bodies, not just one, but they're bringing two, three bodies."

San Antonio outscored Cleveland 24-14 in the third period to increase a five-point halftime lead to 64-49 entering the fourth.

A 24-foot, three-pointer by Robert Horry to open the final quarter stretched the lead to 18 points and by the time James nailed two consecutive three-pointers midway through the final period it was too late.

Pretty good job

Tony Parker paced the Spurs with 27 points and seven assists. Tim Duncan, already a three-time MVP in the finals, added 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting.

"We did a pretty good job on LeBron, not giving him the lanes that he's used to," said Duncan.

"We won the game, we held them to 76 points. That's right where we need to be."

Cleveland were the NBA's best rebounding team this season but San Antonio won the battle of the boards 43-32, led by Duncan with 13.

San Antonio are shooting for their fourth title since 1999 while Cleveland are appearing in the championship round for the first time in the franchise's 37-year history.

Game Two in the best-of-seven series is tomorrow in San Antonio.

Bowen said it was too soon to talk about another title.

"This is just one game," he said. "I want to makesure that I stay hungry."