Last season the Cavaliers were awful in their first home game against former teammate LeBron James and the Heat. The second time around, they played the game of the year, topping Miami.

Tonight, it’s round three at the Q at 7:30pm.

The villain, fresh off his somewhat sensational comments about playing in Cleveland again on Thursday, is here, and the Cavs are hoping to shut him and the Heat up.

Anytime LeBron is in Ohio, it’s a story. He made ESPN and sports headlines when he stated that he would consider one day playing again for the Cavaliers.

“It would be fun to play in front of these fans again,” James said. “You can’t predict the future. I’m here as a Miami Heat player, and I’m happy where I am now, but I don’t rule that out in no sense. And if I decide to come back, hopefully the fans will accept me.”

LBJ said something similar in Miami earlier in the year, but this time the Cavs and the media jumped on it, as it’s the first time in the great state of Ohio those words came out of his mouth.

The Cavs have already lost to the Heat in Miami twice this year, but tonight Cavs coach Byron Scott knows there will be a major difference since it’s a home game in front of a loud Cavs led crowd.

“Anytime you have a big crowd and they are hostile towards the other team it kind of feeds fire for us,” Scott said. “I know we want to go out there tonight and play well, not only for the fans, but for ourselves.”

The Cavs lost to them on February 7th 107-91 in a game where they were beat up in the fourth quarter. The first game the Cavs hung around till late, before falling 92-85.

James has had success in the six games he’s played against the Cavaliers, going 5-1. James scored 38 in the first game back in Cleveland last December, and the night the Cavs beat the Heat 102-90 at home March 29th, LBJ scored 27 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

Tonight, it will come down to stopping James, not allowing the Heat to get a lot of fast break points, and keeping their emotion in check. If they can do that, they have a shot to score the win.

The Cavs after tonight will play a couple teams that are well below .500, including the Kings on Sunday, Pistons Tuesday and Hornets on Wednesday.