When it's November but your season really doesn't start until April, maintaining intensity can be a chore. LeBron James is finding the task easier this November.
Based on how Monday's game at an extra-hostile Madison Square Garden went down, it's looking like the past three days were LeBron's version of 3-D motivational chess, and checkmate was a dagger 3 over the Knicks' best player.
LeBron didn't plan on having to complete a Cleveland rally from a 23-point second-half deficit, or on being taken out unexpectedly in the third quarter by coach Tyronn Lue. But it's not unrealistic to think he issued himself a challenge two days before the encounter by telling the world Jackson was wrong to take Frank Ntilikina over the Mavs' Dennis Smith Jr. in this year's NBA Draft.
And if James wasn't deliberately producing heat, there was still the matter of avenging the Cavs' lethargic home loss to the Knicks two weeks earlier. The return match was in the Garden, the place people begged him to make his home in 2010 (and have ever since), and the place where he loves to show out.
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