Kendrick Perkins knew what to expect from Anderson Varejao.

“You’ve just got to take him out of the game,” he said Saturday, the day before the Celtics met the Cavs in Cleveland. “I think you’ve got to, all the time he’s more of the instigator. I think you’ve got to be more of the instigator when you’re playing against him. You’ve got to hit him first.”

But it was Varejao who hit early against the Celtics. He scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds in the first half alone. His early play set the tone for the Cavaliers' 104-93 victory on Sunday (click here for the full recap).

“I thought one guy completely dominated this game, and that was Varejao,” Boston coach Doc Rivers told reporters after the game. “And that’s the second time. Loose balls, activity, getting under our skin — I mean, he’s doing what he should do, and so that was very frustrating.”

Varejao led the charge in the first half and LeBron James stepped up in the second. After scoring just six points in the first two quarters, James finished with a game-high 30.

The Celtics were fueled by the Big Three — Ray Allen led with 20 points; Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce followed with 18 each. But the offensive production stopped in the starting lineup. The C’s bench added 15 points between five players. Rasheed Wallace was the high scorer with just five points, and that came off of 1-for-8 shooting from the field. In contrast, Varejao and Mo Williams combined for 31 points off the pine for the Cavs.

But this loss cannot be pinned on the Celtics' second unit. There were missed opportunities, missed shots, and plenty of missed rebounds, that led to Boston's third loss in four games.

Here are three things we learned in the loss.

MISSING KG — IN A DIFFERENT WAY

There have been plenty of times this season when the Celtics have missed having Kevin Garnett on the court because of injuries (the C’s are 5-6 without him this season). But there was a different kind of frustration on Sunday.

Garnett was held to just 28 minutes against the Cavaliers because of foul trouble. He was whistled for five fouls in the game, the most since Jan. 22 against the Trail Blazers (he played 30 minutes in that win).

“I thought Kevin was taken out of his game because of the fouls,” Rivers said. “Even though he had a terrific game in 28 minutes when you look what he did, he was terrific, but when you’re in foul trouble the way he was, it really hurts his rhythm.”

Garnett scored 18 points (he 5-for-8 from the floor and 8-for-8 from the line) and grabbed seven rebounds. In comparison, Paul Pierce scored as many points in 36 minutes and Kendrick Perkins nabbed one less board in 30 minutes.

Not only did losing Garnett’s efficiency hurt the Celtics, they didn’t have any weapons on the bench to compensate for it. They were a team-low minus-17 with Rasheed Wallace (1-for-8 from the field, 0-for-2 on 3-point attempts) in the game.

“That hurt us because our game plan was to go low more and with him out, and Rasheed didn’t give us anything. We basically became a pick-and-roll, jumpshooting team instead of being the post team that we planned on being going into this game,” Rivers said.

The Celtics had made the argument that the Cavaliers are better without Shaquille O’Neal, who has been out since spraining his thumb last month in Boston. Even though the Cavs give up size, they make up for it in versatility and speed.

On Sunday, however, the smaller Cavs team played bigger than the Celtics. Playing without O’Neal and Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who had averaged 5.3 rebounds for the Cavs in 53 games, the Cavaliers outrebounded the Celtics, 51-43. They grabbed six more offensive rebounds and scored 10 more points in the paint.

“I thought they were the more physical team, and they were the smaller team,” Rivers said. “Without Shaq, they’ve gone small a lot and we’re big — that’s who we are. But if we’re going to be big, we’re going to have to act big. And we didn’t do that tonight. I thought they did. I thought they really took the fight to us more tonight.”

Rivers did, however, praised the hustle of Glen Davis. Even though he picked up four fouls in 15 minutes, his tough play was appreciated. In the second quarter, Davis practically leapt at Antawn Jamison as he set up for his shot, knocking him to the ground.

Later in the game, Varejao went flying to the floor as and Davis chased for a loose ball. Whether it was a flop or a foul, Rivers applauded Davis’ effort.

“I thought he played great. I thought he was terrific,” he said. “I thought Baby was the one guy, I thought his energy there was absolutely wonderful. And honestly, I think Baby’s been doing that more and more for us. He was the only one who made a physical play, to me, the entire night when he knocked Varejao down. You don’t want that, but you want physical play. We were not tonight.”

ONE GAME AT A TIME

With just 17 games left in the regular season, Rivers continues to take it one day at a time. He isn’t panicking now that the Celtics are 1-2 against the Cavs this season. They have the opportunity to even up the series when the Cavs come to Boston on April 4.

“It doesn’t mean anything — they won one game,” Rivers said. “You think about it, we’ve played three times. They’re won twice and we have another game against them. And I’ve only said it a hundred times, it’s one single game.”

Regular-season matchups, after all, don’t carry over into the playoffs.

“Two years ago, we swept Atlanta in the regular season and went seven games [in the playoffs],” Rivers said. “When the playoffs start, it’s a new thing. We understand that. But what we have to do is keep just improving so when the playoffs start, we’re ready. That’s the key for us.”

Regardless of whether the regular season ends up tied at two apiece or the Cavs go up 3-1, LeBron James still expects the Celtics to turn it on in the playoffs. After telling the Cleveland Plain-Dealer the Celtics looked bored to him, he pointed out before the game that they can’t be taken for granted in the postseason.

“It’s a veteran ballclub, they know what it takes to win,” James told reporters. “They’re going to do what it takes to win. They’ve got guys that have been through everything, won multiple championships. It’s a good team.”