LeBron James Has To Beat The Cleveland Cavaliers On Thursday

When a 9-8 team goes to play against a 7-9 team, it rarely has much interest from the entire country. It is also shocking to think that the game is a "must win" for both teams.

On Thursday night, LeBron James and the Miami Heat will travel to Ohio to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. It will be the first time that James has returned to play at the Quicken Loans Arena since bolting for south Florida via free agency this past summer.

Publicly, James will tell the world that there isn't any additional pressure to do well and win the game. The public relations people are already at work for him.

Privately, though, the 6'8" forward knows that he has to do very well in this game. He knows that he can't silence all of his critics, but he can muzzle a few.

James is in the unenviable position where will be criticized for everything that he does.

If the Heat lose the game against the Cavaliers, then that will make it rather easy for people to bash James. There's a lot of fans out there who aren't intelligent enough to realize that a big free agency decision cannot be based on one regular-season game.

If the Cavaliers win, then people will make it out to be something much bigger than it should be.

Winning the game isn't the only priority. James has to be the star of the night. Otherwise, the critics will call him a secondary player that is just riding teammate Dwyane Wade's coattails.

Of course, if he scored 50 points, then the critics will find a way to criticize that as well.

James isn't going to be to get of the hate, but it would make life just a little bit easier if he could win on Thursday night.