Heat Vs. Knicks: LeBron James Looks To Break New York’s Hearts Again

The New York Knicks hope to avenge the eye-opening beatdown LeBron James and the Miami Heat handed out at Madison Square Garden earlier in December as the teams pair off in South Beach. In that Dec. 17 game in New York, a 113-91 Heat romp, LeBron blasted out a 32-point triple-double, and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh each scored 26 as Miami's cavalcade of smiling centers held Amar'e Stoudemire to 24 points on 11-28 shooting.

LeBron's MSG triple-double served as just his second of the season; the reigning two-time MVP also went 3x2 in a crushing November home loss to the Utah Jazz. Considering that some analysts had wondered out loud whether LeBron could average a triple-double for an entire season between gravity-pulling Wade and Bosh, that he didn't pick up his second such performance until the middle of December was a pretty cold splash of water.

But just a week later in the Heat's Christmas Day whooping of the Lakers, LeBron earned another triple-double, the 31st of his career and the first on Christmas since 1970. James had four triple-doubles last season, down from eight in 2008-09.

The Knicks have gone 2-1 since losing to the Heat, with a bad loss to the Cavaliers in Cleveland preceding big victories over the Thunder and Bulls. Stoudemire's streak of consecutive 20-point games has reached 15, tied for the second-longest such run of his career. Late in the 2007-08 season, Amar'e had 20 or more in 18 straight games. Stoudemire has averaged 29.5 points and 10.8 rebounds in December and barring bad games against the Heat on Tuesday and the Orlando Magic on Thursday, Amar'e figures to be a leading contender for Eastern player of the month honors.