When Kevin Love made it clear that his time in Minnesota was coming to an end, he found himself traded into the ideal situation in Cleveland with top point guard Kyrie Irving and the best basketball player on the planet, Lebron James.
The main complaint issued by Love’s camp was the inability to build a playoff team. Critics of Love also pointed to that as one of his supposed flaws – if he was the man, how come he wasn’t leading this team to the playoffs? By switching conferences – going from stronger to weaker – and joining up with some of the best players in the league, Love all but assured that he would make his first visit to the playoffs this season.
So how is that coming along for Love? Well, it might be fair to say that there hasn’t been a lot of Love in Cleveland this season. A series of problems has made Love’s maiden voyage to the playoffs less than ideal. Love has suffered injury, had difficulty adjusting to his new teammates, and dealt with a first-year coach who seems to struggle with most aspects of, well, coaching. Doubt has constantly circled him this season as rumors swirled that he may opt to leave for Los Angeles at the end of this season, questions regarding his relationship with Lebron James arose, and the fourth quarter benching issues occurred.
Despite all of the chaos surrounding Love, little of it his own making, he continues to push his way through this first season outside Minnesota and into the playoffs.
The Cavaliers have been matched up with the overachieving Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference first round. No one expected Boston to be here and their eventual series loss to the Cavaliers is expected. While Irving and James continue to dazzle, scrutiny surrounds the performance of Love.
Love appears to still not be at full health, even as he hustles down the court on every possession, clearly energized by his first trip to the playoffs. Repeatedly in the series opener, Love could be seen wearing his emotions on his face, hustling back on defense, showing displeasure at calls going against him, and putting himself in position to finish off of long outlet passes from James. In his playoff debut, Love was good for the only double-double of the game, 19 points and 12 rebounds, in 33 minutes on 5-for-14 shooting.
Love did what he always does, scored points and grabbed a bunch of defensive rebounds, and helped contribute to a huge Game 1 win for the Cavaliers. Game 2 was not exactly the same, but Love was still good for 13 points and six rebounds in 29 minutes. The Cavaliers again got the win and are now one foot into the second round.
The struggle for Love is going to continue being his role within the offense. He tends to get lost and spends a lot of time standing around, and this is a criticism of not just Love but the Cavaliers as a whole, and when the going gets ISO, James and Irving get going. With two prominent scorers on the floor in Irving and James, Love needs to be involved in the offense in a way that doesn’t involve him standing on the block, covered easily while James and Irving have their own version of 30 for 30. And on defense, he could be the weak link, having a +/- of +2 in the Cavaliers Game 2 win, by far the lowest of all starters.
Love is a fantastic player and an incredible scorer. If not in Cleveland, somewhere else, Love will settle back into his prolific scoring ability and either learn to adjust to the offensive system in place or become the center of a new one. No matter which way it works out, Love finally made his way into the playoffs and it looks like both he and the Cavaliers will be around for a while.
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