03sLEBRONkjg.jpg

LeBron James and the Miami Heat take the floor at The Q on Dec. 2, 2010.

(Joshua Gunter, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – It's Miami week for LeBron James, finally.

The long-anticipated Christmas Day matchup featuring James and the Cavaliers against the Heat in Miami – where James won two championships and played the last four years – is Thursday at 5 p.m. in the NBA's prime slot on Christmas.

The Heat will honor both James and Cavaliers reserve James Jones with video tributes at AmericanAirlines Arena, the Heat confirmed Monday. Jones played for Miami from 2008 through last season.

Both the Cavs and Heat play Tuesday night – Cleveland hosts Minnesota and Miami hosts Philadelphia – but players on both sides are beginning to discuss James' return to South Beach.

"I mean, I seen it when the schedule came out, that it was a Christmas Day game," James said last week, before the Cavaliers were to play their second of five consecutive home games before the trip to Miami. "So it is there. How much emphasis am I putting on it? I'm not putting much on it. I'm excited to see my teammates, the guys I went to war with, the coaching staff, things like that once I get to that point.

"We have too many games for me to even get to that point. But when it comes up, it will be a great time."

Miami's Dwyane Wade, one of James' best friends and his courtmate for each of the Heat's four Finals appearances with James, told the Bleacher Report and ESPN that James "helped take us to places we've only been once before he got here.

"So I think he should be received very well for that at the start of the game," Wade said. "And then when the game comes on, then do what you've got to do (as fans). ... I hope our fans are just appreciative of what he brought to this organization in four years."

This is not the first time James revisits an NBA city he used to call home, of course. On Dec. 2, 2010, the Akron-born, St. Vincent-St. Mary-bred James returned to The Q for the first time with Heat, after having left Cleveland for South Beach with "The Decision" the previous July.

On that night, an avalanche of boos and catcalls flowed from the fans toward James all night, before and during a game in which James scored 38 points and the Heat dominated 118-90.

James left Cleveland with one Finals appearance in seven seasons. When he announced July 11 that he would leave the Heat as a free agent and rejoin the Cavaliers, he was departing Miami as a two-time champion, MVP (the Miami), and two-time Finals MVP.

For those reasons and others, the reception James gets in Miami is not expected to be like what he received when he returned here four years ago.

"I would be stunned if he did not get a standing ovation, and also (the Miami fans) stay the standing ovation for a while," said basketball Hall of Famer and national TV analyst Hubie Brown, who held a conference call with reporters Monday. Brown will call the Oklahoma City-San Antonio game on Christmas. "Mainly because of what he accomplished while he was there and how far he took the situation not only the rings but the sellouts on nightly basis.

"The only reason he was booed in Cleveland was because they wanted him to stay there."

James has already played against Wade, Chris Bosh (who has an injured calf and may or may not play Thursday), and his old Miami pals once this season -- in a preseason game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was an awkward week, one in which the former teammates, though friends, barely spoke to one another.