After posting a career-high 17 points with six rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal in Monday night's 123-109 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks point guard Frank Ntilikina responded to the praise that he recently received from LeBron James.

James, who recorded 26 points and 11 assists in Monday's game, tells ESPN Ian Begley that he's known about Ntilikina for quite a while, as his close friend, Romeo Travis, played with the Belgian ball-handler overseas.

“I think he knows how to play the game,” James recently told Begley, referring to Ntilikina. “That's the best thing, first of all. Very cerebral basketball player. I think, defensively, he's more advanced than offensively. But I think offensively, he's gotten better as he's gotten more opportunity and played more games…. I think every game, more and more, he gets the opportunity to play, more and more, he gets comfortable with the NBA game, his offensive game is getting better. Defensively he's been good since he probably stepped on a basketball floor defensively so, it's good for him.”

Ntilikina has made 77 appearances with the Knicks this season, averaging 5.8 points on 36.2 percent shooting from the field (31.6 percent from beyond the arc), 3.2 assists, 2.2 rebounds and just under one steal (0.8) in 21.7 minutes.

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“I'm thankful for it,” Ntilikina said in response to James' praise. “Coming from the top player in history. As a kid, I didn't know I'd be able to compete against all of these guys, all of these teams. Now, getting feedback from players like that, all of the players in the league, it's just great and it motivates me a lot.”

Ntilikina and the Knicks will close out their 2017-18 regular season with another matchup against the Cavs — this one on Wednesday night inside Quicken Loans Arena at 7:00 p.m. EST.