Visit SB Nation’s Cavaliers and Knicks blogs: Fear The Sword for LeBron’s current team, and Posting and Toasting for LeBron’s future team. (Aw. Aww, come on, man. That was cold.)

New York, NY (Sports Network) – LeBron James recorded game bests of 33 points and nine assists to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to their sixth straight win over the Knicks with a 100-91 victory at Madison Square Garden.

New York lost all four matchups with Cleveland last year, while the Cavaliers have won six straight and 10 of the past 13 meetings. The Cavs are also unbeaten in their last four trips to Madison Square Garden.

James also hauled in eight rebounds for the Cavs, who have won three of four. Mo Williams added 12 points and Daniel Gibson 11 in the win. Anderson Varejao grabbed 14 boards to go with eight points, while Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 11 caroms and nine points.

David Lee poured in 21 points and grabbed six rebounds for the Knicks, who fell to 1-5 on the year. Danilo Gallinari chipped in 17 points and former Cavs guard Larry Hughes 18 with five boards and four helpers in defeat. Al Harrington added 14 points and Wilson Chandler 11 with six boards.

Trailing by 19 points late in the game, the Knicks made a valiant effort. Harrington and Gallinari hit consecutive three-pointers, and then a basket each to close it to 91-82 with 3:44 left to play.

Williams, though, responded with a jumper and James added a fadeaway to give the visitors a 13-points edge.

New York failed to get closer than the final margin.

James scored 19 points in the first quarter to lead the Cavs to a 40-21 lead after 12 minutes of play. Cleveland kept pushing and opened a 63-40 lead at the intermission.

Trailing by 25 points early in the third, Chandler hit a jumper then added a three before Hughes and Lee offered baskets to close it to 67-51.

The visitors opened a 77-58 advantage headed to the final frame.

James had scored 50 or more points in two of his previous three visits to the Garden…The Cavaliers (4-3) didn’t suffer their fourth loss last season until December 13. The team has already lost twice at home this season to match the total from all of 2008-09 (39-2)…New York closed out a four-game homestand at 1-3 Friday…Six members of the World Series champion New York Yankees were in attendance, including third baseman Alex Rodriguez, pitcher CC Sabathia, first baseman Mark Teixeira. Former Yankees great Reggie Jackson was also in attendance.

- Via Sports Network.

Over at ESPN, Mark Stein examines the five most likely destinations for Lebron James this season. He elaborates in depth, but here are the five teams he lists:

Your favorites:
1. Cleveland
2. New York
3. New Jersey

And then, two dark horse teams:
4. Miami
5. Dallas

And of the Knicks, he had this to say:

Dismiss the lure of Madison Square Garden and the Mike D'Antoni-Donnie Walsh partnership at your own peril.

MSG will forever be a basketball mecca, with or without its forthcoming expensive renovation, because Jordan declared it so. The Knicks also happen to have a coach who has undeniably strong street cred; D'Antoni is admired by just about everyone he's worked with on Team USA. For all the valid questions about what the Knicks will be able to put around him, after stripping their roster all the way down to create maximum cap space, D'Antoni and Walsh are going to have a legit shot at LeBron.

Perhaps I'm a hopeless (and gullible) romantic, but I even believe that the prospect of being the guy who resurrects the Knicks and MSG appeals to LeBron almost as much as the aforementioned Cleveland-curse-lifter scenario.

Some great stuff from Stein, so check it out here.

Every year, it seems that whenever Lebron James plays in New York, the rest of the basketball world stops to gawk at the impossible--Lebron ... in New York City. It's unclear when all of this began, but it's been going strong for a solid three years now, and on the brink of the 2010 free agency extravaganza(!!!), Lebron's trip to "The City" carries even more significance than usual.

(Note: people that call New York "The City" deserve to be bludgeoned. Me? Yeah I'm just going to jet up to the city for the weekend, get some drinks with a few friends. There's this new place in SoHo called "Spot." Or maybe it's "The Spot".. I don't know. We may also hit up this party starting at 3 a.m. at this club called "Furniture." Should be a great time... DIE.)

This is the only time Lebron will be in New York all year, so the media has to cram all their media hysteria into one, bloated newsday. With that in mind, let's take a look around the web:

True Hoop's Knicks Blog writes an open letter to Lebron, asking him NOT to join the Knicks:

Now, were you to join our team, I can say with a good degree of certainty that you would greatly improve our chances of winning on a day-to-day basis and possibly even elevate the squad to the status of, "championship contender". Many of my fellow fanatics would very much like this to happen. I’m here to formally ask that you please do not join our team.

According to Frank Isola at the New York Daily News, Lebron will NOT be attending the Yankees victory parade. But to prove he's still kind of a dick, James says "My parade starts at 8," referring to the Knicks game.

Howard Beck from the New York Times asks, "Does Lebron James Need New York?" From the Times:

So what do you get for the superstar who has everything? More fame? More awards? More money? The answers might determine where James lands next summer, if he becomes a free agent as expected. [...]

In Cleveland, James has been blessed with solid teammates, deep playoff runs and a finals appearance. The Knicks, lacking any of that, will try to mesmerize him with Broadway lights and Madison Avenue riches.

It is the conventional wisdom that infuses every discussion of James’s pending free agency: If he leaves Cleveland, it will be to chase fame and fortune in the greatest market of all.

But it might be a misguided pursuit, based on a faulty premise.

While the New York Post provides some quotes from the Icon, himself:

"July 1 is right around the corner, so it'll be really exciting. I'm looking forward to winning an NBA championship here [in Cleveland]. It's going to be a long season, and I can't think about what's going to happen July 1 or after that or what I'm going to do."...

"I don't tease. I've never teased the New York media by saying I was coming to New York, or playing for the Knicks," James said. "I say the same thing every time: When July 1gets here, I'm going to approach it like a businessman and approach it for the best fit for LeBron and his family.

"I've been a Cav for seven years now, and I've never given any indication I was leaving. For me to say I'm not going to be a Knick, I'm going to be a Cav, or I'm going to be a Knick, I'm not going to be a Cav, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to leave my options open."

And the Post's Peter Vescey chimes in as the unintentional caricature of all the hype:

Let's play a game of hypothetically speaking, shall we?

Suppose for the purpose of our game you were good -- very good, damn good -- at whatever you did for a living. You have several things going for you: 1) You're on the open market sooner rather than later. 2 ) Your name is known far and wide. 3) Just about every organization where you're able to ply your trade wants to hire you.

...

Superintendent of his own solar system, LeBron is guaranteed to leave no loose ends unaccounted for this enchanted evening. What should Knicks fans be rooting for tonight and for the remainder of this season regarding LeBron? His team's utter self-destruction?

...

A still darker inner-sanctum belief is that a favorable Supreme Court decision -- a franchise first title -- is needed to ensure LeBron remains rooted to his home state.

Then again, in LeBron's mind, would getting crowned fulfill such fidelity? Would winning one for the city of Cleveland give him the freedom of mind to fly the coop?

Meanwhile, Knicks players held a closed door meeting last night, and are apparently growing frustrated with the franchise's perceived apathy toward this year's players:

According to one player, there is a sense among many Knicks that this season doesn't mean anything to the organization since management has made it clear that it will look to add an impact player next summer. In order to do that, most of the players with expiring contracts will not be re-signed. Harrington, David Lee, Nate Robinson, Darko Milicic and Hughes are in the last year of their respective deals.

The players also don't like hearing about the organization's interest in potential free agents LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson. (Team officials are prohibited from talking about players on other teams and most of the speculation has come via the media.) A few players have said that they have been so soured by their experience in New York that if James were to solicit their advice about playing for the Knicks, they would not give him a favorable scouting report.

And finally, SB Nation's Knicks blog has a simple request for Knicks fans. For the next 24 hours, how about just not mentioning one name?

I'm not going to go so far as to call this a "rule", but let's say I'm making a "request" for the extent of tomorrow. As you know, the Cleveland Cavaliers come to New York tomorrow. With them, they'll bring perhaps the world's best ballplayer and an absolute circle jerk of media excitement. If you ask me, all the hooplah is completely tasteless. I understand the 2010 plan and am fully invested in its potential rewards, but the fact that this summer's free agency has been a point of emphasis for almost a year now is really frustrating. For better or worse, the Knicks have to play this season's games as currently composed. Fawning over opposing players is, for the time being, quite lame. Strikes me as bad karma, too.

Now, I'm not the authority on all things Knicks, but I am the authority of this li'l Knicks blog. That said, I'm "requesting" that we all abstain from using the name of the man pictured above. Not his first name. Not his last name. Not his initials, nor his faux-regal nickname.

And really, that's the part about this story the resonates the loudest--this is TERRIBLE karma. Like, it's fine to plan for the future, but what the Knicks organization has done over the past few years has been an utter embarassment to its players and fans. Will Lebron go to New York? Who knows, but in the meantime, it seems that the media, the Knicks, and their fans are all willing to foresake any semblance of dignity, and completely ignore the 2009 season. I mean, at least pretend to care about this year.

Instead, everyone froths over something that's completely theoretical. And while the speculation's understandable, at this scale, it borders on the absurd. Doesn't everyone realize he's going to the Nets?