Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[The Wizard of Moz]

You look at some stats and you think he might have had a sub par outing.

But then you see he was the leader in plus/minus and end of discussion

 

[The Red Viper]

KD on Love isn't a good matchup for him I hope we don't keep trying to go to that in the finals. Try to get him on klay or curry.

Not really. Love completely killed KD when we faced OKC last season and KD switched on to him. The problem is, Warriors' help defense is possibly the best in the league. They make smart decisions in regards to help defense and trapping. Obviously having players like Iggy and Draymond who get away with sneaky fouls helps.

 

[blommen]

Did better about as well on defense as one could have hoped if not even better. Looked engaged and active and only really got embarrassed when he got switched onto Durant, who would utterly smoke him.

The most important thing is that he proved he can be played against GS, contrary to what I and a lot of other people though after the finals. In fact, he is borderline paramount in order for us to beat them.

 

[LeShaq]

I just know it was draymond green that was the anonymous player that told mark jackson that (Love is) a buster.

Well draymond, you can go fuck yourself. You can count the amount of big men on one hand from a guy in a wood shop accident that are playing better than Kevin Love.

Of course it was. Windy has said that Green basically called Love a pussy last year. I think that was during The Finals. Not to Love's face, but to any reporter who would listen.

As I said in the Cavs/Warriors thread, a big part of what the Warriors (and Green in particular) try to do is "Bully Ball." Blitz you with threes, preen, demoralize you and trash talk you and try to make you back down, mentally. What Green is doing (or trying to do) with Love is exactly in that mold. He knew Jackson would repeat what he said if he told Jackson it. Fuck Green and Jackson.

Here's the problem for Green: the Love that Green thought was a pussy is gone (Love is healthy and strong and confident now, as compared with his first two years in Cleveland). Green isn't used to dealing with Strong Minny Love that's around at this time. Now that Love has gotten a lot of his strength and bulk back, it's going to be a lot tougher for Green going forward in his match up with Love.

So much of what we need is for Kyrie and Kevin to step-up and be assertive and confident against the Warriors. What's great is that if the Warriors are resorting to mind tricks, they know they have issues against us.

Love is back at Minny Level now. Green can't outdo that player, consistently, and he isn't likely to stop him, either, unless Love lets Green get in his head.

Fuck Green, fuck Mark Jackson, fuck the Warriors and fuck the ABC/ESPN love for them.

People wonder why LeBron trolled the Warriors so hard. He did it because they deserve it for their antics, and he also did it to show that the Cavs aren't backing down to any Bully Ball bullshit.

LeBron knows what he's doing. He's making sure we stand strong against the BS.

Love did a good job today. Proud of him. Green, as usual, was ready to melt down when the action picked up.

Advantage Love and the Cavs.

Still, to be fair, there's a long way for Kyrie and Kevin to go so that they have full "mental armor" against the Warriors and the big stage. But today is yet another step in that direction for them both, and it's a step away from that serenity for Green and the Warriors.

 

[MoFlo]

The players with the 3 highest NetRtg for us today?

RJ: 120.4/100.6 = +19.6
Love: 109.3/93.2 = +16.1
Kyrie: 107.1/99.9 = +7.2

Love's DefRtg was the best on the team, by the way.

 

[fan0283]

There's no way to say this without sounding to diminish him but I'm not sure I'm going to attach much weight to any stat that has Love has having the best defensive anything on our team tonight. I mean in the 4th quarter a lot of their strategy revolved around putting him in action because of a lack of respect of his help defense
Look at the possessions at;
1. 6:41
2. 6:54
3. 7:04
4. 7:33
5: 7:53
6. 8:08
7. 8:40

He isn't at fault for all of those, yes, but come on, they were manufacturing points by challenging his help defense. Once or twice is a coincidence but those were multiple instances. You're telling me the guy in those eight clips was anything close to our best defensive contributor? With defense the stat test has to be supplemented with the eye test

 

[David.]

There's no way to say this without sounding to diminish him but I'm not sure I'm going to attach much weight to any stat that has Love has having the best defensive anything on our team tonight. I mean in the 4th quarter a lot of their strategy revolved around putting him in action because of a lack of respect of his help defense
Look at the possessions at;
1. 6:41
2. 6:54
3. 7:04
4. 7:33
5: 7:53
6. 8:08
7. 8:40

He isn't at fault for all of those, yes, but come on, they were manufacturing points by challenging his help defense. Once or twice is a coincidence but those were multiple instances. You're telling me the guy in those eight clips was anything close to our best defensive contributor? With defense the stat test has to be supplemented with the eye test

keep in mind, he was playing w/ 4 fouls

 

[I'mWithDan]

You know Kevin is having a great year when at the end of yesterday's game, I felt like that was just an OK game. Then I looked at the box score and saw 20, 6, 3 in 32 foul shortened minutes.

It's amazing how he's playing this season. He just looks like his normal self again. The title seems to have taken all the burden off of everyone's shoulders.....especially Kevin's.

 

[fan0283]

keep in mind, he was playing w/ 4 fouls

They would have used the same strategy if he was on 2 fouls. Being on 4 fouls didn't actually make him play softer. He legit tries and you can't fault that. But he was in no way one of our better defenders last night. We can find a middle ground between praise and hate, can't we?

 

[buzzdog]

They would have used the same strategy if he was on 2 fouls. Being on 4 fouls didn't actually make him play softer. He legit tries and you can't fault that. But he was in no way one of our better defenders last night. We can find a middle ground between praise and hate, can't we?

The conventional wisdom of a lot of people including Brian Windhorst is that Love is UNPLAYABLE against Golden State. Why not praise Love for proving that to be a fallacy?

You're in here nitpicking because they run Love's man off moving screens to get a layup, or that Love isn't rotating quickly enough with 4 fouls.

I've got news for you. At times every player on the team is slow on defensive rotations with Lebron being one of the biggest culprits.

Love jumped out on screens then recovered effectively many times yesterday. He got caught on a few but some of them were team lapses and not just on Love.

You're singling Love out for stuff that happens to just about all of our players.

 

[Pioneer10]

There's no way to say this without sounding to diminish him but I'm not sure I'm going to attach much weight to any stat that has Love has having the best defensive anything on our team tonight. I mean in the 4th quarter a lot of their strategy revolved around putting him in action because of a lack of respect of his help defense
Look at the possessions at;
1. 6:41
2. 6:54
3. 7:04
4. 7:33
5: 7:53
6. 8:08
7. 8:40

He isn't at fault for all of those, yes, but come on, they were manufacturing points by challenging his help defense. Once or twice is a coincidence but those were multiple instances. You're telling me the guy in those eight clips was anything close to our best defensive contributor? With defense the stat test has to be supplemented with the eye test

We outscored them during that run once Lebron came in by +9. The problem with this critique is it doesn't show the plays where they didn't score: by my count based on play by play about 10 or so possessions with no score. Against GS that is extremely good outcome to finish a game. Now was Love the reasons for those stops? Maybe or maybe not but basing how he did on defense only when they did score doesn't help a lot as he's playing the 5 he's going to be essentially in the highlights for any shot that they make outside of 3's

 

[The Wizard of Moz]

We can find a middle ground between praise and hate, can't we?

What are you, new or something?

 

[fan0283]

What are you, new or something?

No, but I attach stuff like that to pacify the resident fans in player threads. The type that compulsively rush to shoot down what they perceive to be a negative remark

 

[buzzdog]

No, but I attach stuff like that to pacify the resident fans in player threads. The type that compulsively rush to shoot down what they perceive to be a negative remark

So, you were praising Love's defense? But in reverse?

Looked to me like you were cherry picking then trying to qualify your criticism by saying it wasn't criticism. Whatevs.

 

[fan0283]

So, you were praising Love's defense? But in reverse?

Looked to me like you were cherry picking then trying to qualify your criticism by saying it wasn't criticism. Whatevs.

You can disagree about a player's strengths or pick one of his faults and still appreciate the player.