LeBron James Comes Home To Cleveland. This Time In A Lakers Jersey.

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SteemSports Presenter:@mateonav53

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SteemSports Editor:@scottybuckets

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LeBron James will be coming home to Cleveland in a new jersey for the second time in his career. First with the Heat in 2010, now as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018. It feels weird typing that sentence out. It has been almost a decade since the Heat era. How would people in 2010 react if they learned that four years later LeBron would go back to Cleveland, win a ring, leave again, then play for the purple and gold?

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In his first return to Quicken Loans Arena, he was vigorously booed for obvious reasons. Now people aren't so sure there will be a 100% unified front for one reaction or the other. It'll probably be a mixture of both. A lot of Cavs fans recognized that Cleveland wasn't the best situation for LeBron anymore, and thanked him for the miraculous 2016 ring. But there will still be some bitter holdovers singing the song of the boo-birds no doubt. Which sound will be more pronounced on Wednesday night - booing or cheering?

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The Cleveland Cavaliers look a lot worse than people predicted in their preseason analysis. Some people thought the Cavs could make a run for the eighth seed but here we are today with the Cavs sporting the worst record in Eastern Conference at 2-13. Losing Kevin Love to injury certainly didn't help their chances, but even if he was healthy I wouldn't expect the record to look much different. Their meltdown is telling of how integral LeBron was to that team's on-floor gameplan and the franchise as a whole.

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The Los Angeles Lakers were in the dregs of the NBA standings before LeBron's arrival too. Although they had a solid foundation of interesting young pieces(Brandon Ingram, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart), their players didn't know how to close out games and win on a consistent level yet. That has still been the case in a number of games this year despite LeBron's presence. Part of that is due to the Lakers getting a bigger dose of the apathetic "Regular Season LeBron" than the ferocious, unstoppable "Playoff LeBron".

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But like a groundhog signaling Spring, Playoff Bron has reared his head a little earlier than expected. Last week, he stepped up big time to drop 44 points against the Portland Trail Blazers in a dominant performance at home. It sent a signal to his new team and the rest of the NBA, "I still got it baby". He then followed that up with a 51-point mega-performance against his other old team the Miami Heat mere days ago!

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The bond with Miami was strong but not as tight as his connection with the city of Cleveland. If we got 51 from Miami, how many are we going to get here tonight? 51 is a high number. I'm not expecting him to pass that scoring mark but it's fair to assume he'll have another monster game. Cleveland's wounds are still fresh, so you know those that are hurt will bring the energy in the home crowd tonight.

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The Cavs lack of talent/awful play combined with LeBron's desire to show out should be a recipe for a convincing Laker victory. I could see them running ahead in the first half and not looking back, allowing LeBron to rest during a large part of the third and all of the fourth quarter. The Lakers have a big test on the road against the Utah Jazz on Friday. While the Jazz are in an undeniable funk, they're strong at home and will get up to play the Lakers. I think LA will seek to take care of this matchup with the Cavs early so they're rested for the Jazz.

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Thank you for following @steemsports and you can find me @mateonav53

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