NBA on the show

ESPN Stats & Information And The Elias Sports Bureau

• Two of the NBA's marquee stars go head-to-head Thursday night, as LeBron James and the Cavaliers travel to Miami to take on Dwyane Wade and the Heat. In their previous 19 head-to-head meetings, LeBron has won 10 games and averaged 28.6 points per game, while Wade has won the other nine meetings while averaging 27.2 ppg.

• Cleveland has won six of the past seven meetings in this series, holding the Heat to less than 90 points in four of those games. Wade scored 41 points his last time out, his 15th 40-point game in the past two seasons (most in the NBA) and six more than LeBron. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, James and Wade are the only pair of current NBA players who twice have scored at least 40 points in a game as opponents (on April 1, 2006, and March 2, 2009).

• In the only other game on the schedule, the Suns (8-1) visit the Staples Center to take on the Lakers (6-1) in a battle for first place in the Pacific Division, with the former looking to tie the best 10-game start in franchise history. (Phoenix went 9-1 in 1980-81.) For the Lakers, center Andrew Bynum will be back after missing two games because of a strained right elbow and a sore right triceps. Bynum leads the NBA in points per game in the paint (15.6), with teammate Kobe Bryant right behind him in second place (15.4 points per game in the paint).

• Jared Dudley, who was 3-for-3 from 3-point range for the Suns in a throttling of the Hornets on Wednesday, has made his past six field goal attempts from beyond the arc dating back to Monday's win at Philadelphia. Dudley enters Thursday's game in Los Angeles one shy of the longest streak of consecutive 3-pointers made in the NBA this season: seven in a row by Kevin Martin. Chris Paul, and Dudley's teammate, Jason Richardson.

• The Suns lead the league with a .474 3-point field goal percentage this season, well above the single-season record of .428 set by the Charlotte Hornets in 1996-97. In fact, Phoenix has a higher field goal percentage from 3-point range this season than 11 NBA teams have from 2-point range.