SAN ANTONIO – If there is one word that best describes the Cleveland Cavaliers right now, it would probably be “overmatched.”

Playing in the franchise’s first-ever NBA Finals, the James Gang has spent the first two games of the series seemingly proving what many have long suspected — that the elite teams of the Eastern Conference simply don’t stack up to those in the West.

Nonetheless, we’ve seen in the past three Finals how the tides can shift once the series moves back East. The Eastern team has won eight of the last nine games on its home court over the past three years, with the one setback being San Antonio’s Game 5 overtime win over Detroit in 2005.

Cleveland should expect some kind of boost as well, if for no other reason than the home crowd at the Q has been deafening during the Cavs’ postseason run. But if the Cavs are going to get back into this series, it’s going to take a lot more than crowd noise. Cleveland’s execution was shoddy at both ends in Games 1 and 2, with the final scores of both games not doing justice to the extent to which the Cavs were outplayed.

Today, then, let’s take a look at a few of the key areas where the Cavs have to improve in order to make this thing interesting.

They have to stop Tony Parker. Watching the Spurs’ tiny guard dribble through Cleveland’s defense over and over for layups had to be distressing for the Cavs. Cleveland is a good defensive team, ranking fourth in the NBA in Defensive Efficiency (my measure of a team’s points allowed per 100 possessions) on the season. As I mentioned last week, that’s how they win — the Cavs’ offense is mediocre.

So if Parker is going on his merry way through the lane — scoring a combined 57 points in the first two games — Cleveland has no chance of scoring enough to catch up. Cleveland has been way too permissive in its pick-and-roll defense, as the big men had trouble switching out on him in Game 1 and the guards had problems with the new strategy of going under the screen in Game 2.

The Cavs may need to try something different in Game 3. The best options here are either to trap Parker early and force the ball out of his hands, or to switch to a zone defense. The former is risky because San Antonio’s 3-point shooters could burn the trap very easily. On the other hand, Cleveland detests zone defense — LeBron James called it a “cop out” in his post-game comments after Game 2. Nonetheless, they may need to swallow their pride, because what they’re doing now isn’t working.

Daniel Gibson has to play. The Cavs won the final four games of the Detroit series thanks to a big boost from the play of rookie guard Daniel “Boobie” Gibson off the bench. He’s been a major factor in this series as well, but his playing time has been limited while the ineffective Larry Hughes has kept his place in the starting lineup. Hughes is playing with torn plantar fascia in his left foot, and while I admire his guts for playing when most other guys would be in street clothes, it’s clear he’s unable to help the team at this point.

Yet, Cavs coach Mike Brown has stuck to his guns thus far, insisting that no lineup changes were in the works and that the Cavs would go with the team that brought them there. This is a mistake. Gibson is the one guy who can burn the Spurs when they send multiple defenders at LeBron, because he’s equally adept at stroking the long three or faking the shot and driving to the basket. Through the first two games, he has 31 points in 60 total minutes and is 13-of-21 from the floor. But Hughes continues to start despite his ineffectiveness, scoring just two points in his 43 minutes thus far. It’s a major reason the Cavs keep falling behind early in each half.

Big Z needs to get going. While James’s struggles have received more attention, the Cavs might also want to put out an ABP for Zydrunas Ilgauskas’s post game. Cleveland’s second-leading scorer in the first three playoff rounds has been a non-factor through the first two games of the series, contributing to the Cavs’ offensive woes. Ilgauskas has just 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting, and defensively he’s been helpless against the low-post mastery of San Antonio’s Tim Duncan.

The 7-foot-3-inch Lithuanian is the one Cleveland player who can get points on the low block, and although going against Duncan is a daunting task, it would greatly improve the Cavs’ odds if he could put an early foul or two on the Spurs’ big man.

The Cavs need to hustle. One of the most disappointing aspects of Cleveland’s performance in both games was their inability to get to “50-50” balls that were up for grabs. Brown felt his team was outhustled in both games, especially in Game 2, and seemed to be perplexed that this was the case. For whatever reason, the Cavs’ energy level hasn’t matched their effort in the conference finals, and as a result the Spurs came away with nearly every loose ball.

The most obvious manifestation of this is on the boards. Cleveland was an awesome rebounding team this season, finishing third in the league in Offensive Rebound Rate (the percentage of missed shots that they rebound) at 29.7%, and second in Defensive Rebound Rate at 75.0%. With active big men like Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, and Anderson Varejao joining James in crashing the glass, the rebound battle is one of the few areas where the Cavs should have the advantage. Instead, it’s San Antonio that’s taken care of business on the boards in the first two games — the Spurs have a 25–22 edge in offensive rebounds despite the fact that Cleveland has missed far more shots.

One wonders if the Cavs are suffering from “happy to be here” syndrome. They weren’t expected to make the finals this season, and getting over the Detroit hurdle was a huge step for them. It’s only natural that they’d view anything from here on out as gravy and find themselves less consumed with winning than they were in the Pistons series.

But happy to be here or not, one thing is for certain — they won’t be here much longer if they can’t address the above problems in tonight’s must-win Game 3. Otherwise, the city of San Antonio can start planning the parade route for its fourth championship celebration.

jhollinger@nysun.com