After giving up an MSG-record 61 points to Kobe Bryant two days earlier, New York will get a visit from another superstar on Wednesday as James and his Cleveland Cavaliers look for their eighth win in nine games.

The Knicks (21-26) ended January playing their best basketball of the season, closing the month by winning six times in seven games to pull within a half-game of Milwaukee for the Eastern Conference's eighth playoff seed.

To begin February, though, New York returned home for perhaps the most intimidating three-game stretch in the NBA this season - visits from Los Angeles, Cleveland and Boston, teams that as of Monday had combined for 114 wins.

The total increased by one that night at MSG. Bryant scored 61 and the Lakers had at least 30 points in every quarter of a 126-117 win over the defenseless Knicks.

Bryant is the league's reigning MVP and third-leading scorer this season, and now the Knicks will have to defend James - the NBA's second-leading scorer - and the Central Division-leading Cavaliers (38-9).

"Kobe made a lot of tough shots," said Knicks center David Lee, who's averaging 20.4 points and 14.0 rebounds in his last seven games. "I'm sure LeBron will probably do the same thing and we're going to need to play our best ball."

James has done it in New York before. He had one of his five career 50-point games at MSG on March 5, hitting exactly 50 to go along with 10 assists, eight rebounds and four steals in a 119-105 Cavaliers win.

His numbers haven't been that impressive against the Knicks this season, but that's largely because he's been relaxing on the bench in the fourth quarter. James scored 26 in New York before sitting out the final 12 minutes of the Cavaliers' 119-101 victory on Nov. 25, then had 21 before leaving with 2:33 left in the third of Cleveland's 118-82 blowout on Dec. 3.

Even with Bryant's heroics on Monday, James said he isn't interested in anything except leaving midtown Manhattan with a victory.

"I just go out and play my game," James said. "I'm not a video game where you can just expect me to go out there and score 60 or 70. I play the game to win the game. I'm not into individual accolades. Kobe Bryant's performance was unbelievable. I watched every second of it. It's not about individuals in this league."

James had 33 on Tuesday, surpassing Bryant as the youngest player in league history to reach 12,000 points, in a 101-83 victory over Toronto as the Cavaliers improved to 23-0 at home.

"He's still going to get better," coach Mike Brown said. "That's the scary thing."

As good as James has been, point guard Mo Williams, acquired from Milwaukee in the offseason, has also been a major reason why Cleveland is 11 games ahead of its pace from the same point last season.

Williams is averaging 23.2 points and 6.6 assists over his last five games, making up for the absence of fellow starting guard Delonte West, who's been out since Jan. 15 with a broken wrist.

West's replacement, Sasha Pavlovic, was the latest Cavalier to miss a game when he sat out Tuesday's win with the flu. Pavlovic's status for Wednesday is unclear.