We went into the All-Star break with concerns about LeBron James’ workload, especially after Kevin Love hit the shelf for six weeks with arthroscopic knee surgery. He’s already averaging 37.5 minutes per game, second-most in the league, and it’s Year 14 — at some point, this is going to start to sap his legs, right?

Well, if so, the sapping didn’t start on Thursday night. Just ask Courtney Lee.

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With just over five minutes remaining in the now utterly predictable and customary Cleveland Cavaliers blowout of the New York Knicks, James tried to throw a cross-court pass to Kyle Korver. Lee jumped the route, poking the ball away into the frontcourt, which is the kind of thing that typically results in a fast-break layup going the other way … if you’re not playing against LeBron James.

I mean, Courtney, I really respect your competitive fire and pure-hearted ambition … but you do realize that LeBron has kind of a history of this sort of thing, right?

To be fair, maybe Lee was thinking about those times he got one over on LeBron on similar plays back when he was with the Orlando Magic:

… or maybe he just didn’t think LeBron would do him like he did LeBron when he was with the Charlotte Hornets:

… or maybe he, like the rest of us, though LeBron might have some heavy legs, even after that extended All-Star break. Whatever the case, Lee was wrong. Like, very, very wrong.

This was just the most emphatic of a string of highlight-reel explosions from James on Thursday, as James returned from All-Star duty to lead the Cavs to an easy, breezy 119-104 victory to improve their East-leading mark to 40-16.

LeBron finished with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting with 15 assists, 13 rebounds and three blocks, posting his sixth triple-double of the season, the 48th of his career, and his fourth against the Knicks, tied for the most of any James opponent over the years.

If it seems to you like LeBron’s been stepping up his playmaking this season, it’s for good reason — he’s racking up high-assist evenings more than ever:

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With James distributing the rock, Kyrie Irving (23 points on 9-for-16 shooting) and Korver (20 points, 6-for-10 from 3-point land) scoring it and Tristan Thompson (14 rebounds, six on the offensive glass) controlling it, the Cavs had more than enough firepower to make quick work of the Knicks, who could not stop Cleveland in the second quarter, falling behind for good in the frame. Making matters worse: they also lost rising star big man Kristaps Porzingis in the second quarter, to what the team later called a sprained right ankle. More testing is scheduled to come Friday.

Carmelo Anthony needed 25 shots to score 20 points, and the Knicks shot just 42 percent as a team and 8-for-26 from long distance in a loss that left TNT analyst Charles Barkley unable to apply even the most modest filter required by his job — not cursing on live television:

Lee led the way for the Knicks, scoring 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting with six rebounds, five assists and a steal in 36 1/2 minutes of work. It was one of his best performances of the year, and his highest-scoring outing in nearly five years … and nobody will remember that, thanks to the way LeBron erased him.

Look on the bright side, Courtney. At least you’ve got plenty of company on that score, in the form of Entire Rest Of Eastern Conference Over The Past Half-Decade.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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