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James, Heat take on Knicks at MSG

Dec 17, 2010 - 4:00 PM (Sports Network) - New York fans will finally get the chance to show LeBron James how they feel tonight when the Knicks welcome "The King" and his Miami Heat to Madison Square Garden.

The Heat and Knicks, of course, engaged in a very bitter rivalry in the late 1990s. The rivalry was re-ignited when Miami signed James, the player New York spent nearly two years positioning itself to get in the much-ballyhooed 2010 free agency class.

"No one's actually going to come up to me and try to hurt me," James said about his visit to the Garden. "I mean, I've been in Cleveland after I signed. No one's actually come up to me and say anything to me. They may wait until I walk down the street and yell it after they have just walked past me. I'm not worried."

The Knicks also talked with James' current teammates in South Beach, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, this offseason but had to settle for Plan B, inking All- Star power forward Amare Stoudemire from Phoenix.

Stoudemire certainly isn't James but he has helped make the Knicks relevant again and currently has a franchise-record streak nine straight 30-point games entering tonight's contest.

The Knicks are coming off a very tough loss on Wednesday when Paul Pierce's dagger with four-tenths of a second left lifted the Boston Celtics to a 118-116 win over New York at MSG.

Pierce drained a contested jumper off a high screen with 0.4 ticks remaining to put Boston in front. After a timeout, Stoudemire buried a three-pointer from the top of the key but it came just after the buzzer.

Yet, even in defeat the Knicks left quite an impression on the playoff-tested Celtics.

"The Knicks have arrived," said Pierce. "They're going to be a force to reckon with in the division."

Stoudemire matched a season high with 39 points. Raymond Felton added 26 points and 14 assists, while Danilo Gallinari collected 20 points for the Knicks, who saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end in heart wrenching fashion.

The Heat, meanwhile, have taken off after a pedestrian start, winning their 10th straight game on Wednesday against the Cavs. Wade got hot in the fourth quarter in that one and finished with 28 points to lead Miami to a 101-95 victory.

James added 21 points and 13 rebounds in his second meeting against his former team, while Bosh provided 16 points.

"I knew I didn't have it going as far as shooting, so I just tried to concentrate on rebounding the basketball and do other things to help us win," said James, who shot 5-for-15. "That's the luxury of being on this team."

Back on December 2, in the teams' first meeting of the season and James' first game back in Cleveland, Miami took a 118-90 victory. At that point in the season, the Heat were still trying to become the dominant team many predicted they would be, as the win improved their record to 12-8.

Since that game, the Heat have earned seven consecutive victories, have ascended to the top of the Southeast Division and are now on their first 10- game winning streak since 2005-06 -- the season they won the NBA title.

James has always elevated his game at Madison Square Garden, where he is the only visiting player aside from Michael Jordan with multiple 50-point games.

Miami has won five straight overall versus the Knicks.