Seattle (9-24) at Cleveland (17-17)

When: 4 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland

TV: FSN. Radio: 770-AM

Series: This is the first game this season between these two teams. Seattle lost an exhibition game at Cleveland, 101-96. The Sonics split the series with the Cavaliers last season, winning in Seattle and losing in Cleveland.

Scouting the Cavaliers: Cleveland’s LeBron James was named the Eastern Conference player of the week for his efforts, which included scoring 24 of his game-high 39 points in the fourth quarter of Cleveland’s 93-90 win over Toronto on Sunday.

Cleveland trailed 70-57 after the third quarter. But fueled by some good-natured heckling from Toronto star Chris Bosh’s girlfriend Alison, James outscored the Raptors in the fourth quarter, 24-20, in Cleveland’s 93-90 win Sunday

“I told her it was her fault why they lost,” James said.

“I saw a lot of people were trying to make a big deal out of it but they probably don't know that we all know each other,” Bosh told The Toronto Star. “We all talked after the game and it was cool.”

You can watch the highlights from that game here.

Seattle coach P.J. Carlesimo said there won’t be any Sonics fans heckling James in Cleveland tonight.

“I’m definitely going to meet with our fans tonight and ask them not to be yelling anything or doing anything like that,” Carlesimo deadpanned. “Maybe it made a difference. I don’t think so. I thought them going small and running a lot of pick-and-rolls for him (Lebron James) was just as important as whoever was yelling whatever the hell they were yelling in the stands.

“He’s capable of doing that. But we are having a meeting before the game with our fans to make sure that’s not going to happen.”

Seattle point guard Earl Watson said he watched the highlights from the Cleveland-Toronto game on television.

“I thought it was hilarious,” Watson said. “I mean they were really going at him. They were on the court. I’ve never seen that in my life. Not even in high school, and I’m from the inner city where you grow up and learn how to smack talk on the court, period.

“You don’t ever want to motivate somebody when you’ve got them beat. If anything you kind of just want to get the game over with and move on. It could have been a situation where guys were kind of tired, not really focused. But any edge you give them either by instigating with a verbal confrontation, or even a hard foul.

“You’ve seen games before where the team’s losing and somebody gives a hard foul and it just wakes up the whole team. It’s creates energy. You don’t want to create energy for your opponent ever.

“You have a team on the road, the game’s almost over and you’re playing against one of the best players in the game. You can talk about that stuff in the summer.”

James is averaging 29.2 points, 7.7 assists and 7.2 rebounds a game in 40 minutes a night. Cleveland has taken three in a row and five of its past six, scratching back to .500 for the first time since Dec. 4. That was right after James injured his left index finger. James sat out five games, all losses.

“They are playing much better than they were earlier,” Carlesimo said. “I mean LeBron (James) is playing unbelievably. I just think they’ve been a little disjointed. They’ve been missing some of their front-line guys all year, for a variety of reasons. Donyell (Marshall) is still out. But they’ve been missing guys because of injuries. They’ve been missing guys because of contract problems. So I just think they haven’t been whole.

“It’s not like they dominated the league last year. They were one of the better teams in the East, and they were the best team in the playoffs. I think they’re back now playing the best they’ve played all year. They’re on a good roll right now.”