LeBron James, Cavs find motivation amid rigors of regular season When its November but your season really doesnt start until April, maintaining intensity can be a chore. Based on how Mondays game at an extra-hostile Madison Square Garden went down, its looking like the past three days were LeBrons version of 3-D motivational chess, and checkmate was a dagger 3 over the Knicks best player. And if James wasnt deliberately producing heat, there was still the matter of avenging the Cavs lethargic home loss to the Knicks two weeks earlier. Once Cleveland made the game competitive again , James had a chance to make the finishing move. I knew we had another half, James told reporters of his teams 13-point deficit at the break.