NBA playoff basketball is just over a week away.

And if you're looking for how heated the Cleveland Cavaliers' title defense attempt is going to get, look no further than LeBron James's intense argument with teammate Tristan Thompson yesterday.

During the waning seconds of the Cavs' thrilling double-overtime win over the Indiana Pacers, King James and Thompson erupted into an explosive argument on the team's bench. Peep how LeBron yelled at Tristan with zero chill, with the Cavs center firing words right back, refusing to bow down.

According to ESPN, LeBron was irate about the team's defensive coverage on Paul George, who scored 16 straight Pacers points in overtime and finished with 43 points to James's triple-double of 41 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists. That and the Cavs had been mired in a slump entering the game, having gone 7-10 for the month of March.

After the Cavs' 135-130 home win over the Pacers, James apologized to Thompson for their heated blowup.

"I have to do a better job of not showing up my teammates out on the floor. I had the right intentions in my mind, but I had the wrong intentions come out of my mouth," James told Fox Sports Ohio as soon as the game ended on the court. "I take full responsibility for that as the leader of the team. So I got to be a lot better at that and be able to keep that in-house, in the locker room and when we're watching film."

He added in the locker room to ESPN, "I was a little bit too demonstrative at that point in the game. He worked hard for our team, he's a big-time player ... but the way it came out was — it didn't look good on TV."

Thompson knows their exchange came during the heat of the battle, so it's all good as far as he's concerned.

"We're family. Little miscommunication in the huddle. Move forward. Move forward. We're family. Got each other's back always. Move forward," Thompson said, as reported by ESPN. "Not going to get into [the reasons], just miscommunication, like I said. Move forward. It is what it is. Got the win."

The defending champion Cavs (49-27) have six more games left in the regular season. Their Wednesday night road game against the Boston Celtics could help determine whether they get the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

BET Sports News — Get the latest news and information about African-Americans in sports, including weekly recaps, celebrity news and photos of your favorite Black athletes.