Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Paul]

Good game. Moved well. Should have went to him more, but hey.

I think it's a trust thing. If he can play consistently I think he extra looks will come. His demeanor seemed about as positive as I've seen it, post-game. Whether it was him trying to "say the right things" or whether he really felt it...either way I say good for him. The team needs a healthy chemistry and needs to feel like all are on board. I agree he played well. There were times where it seemed like the offense was out of synch and when we went to him and he hit shots it seemed to help with that.

 

[MirORich]

Kevin Love with 2 days rest this season: 21.8 ppg, 57% fg, 46% 3PFG%

Hopefully this bodes well for Game 1's and the often multiple games per series with 2 days rest.

Interestingly, LeBrons best numbers and percentages this year come in the 2nd game of back to backs.

Kyrie is fairly consistent whether 0, 1, or 2 games rest.

 

[Jscc]

Good game. Moved well. Should have went to him more, but hey.

He was a playground bully in that first quarter. And then for some reason he went to the three point line in the beginning of the second quarter.

I have no idea why but I doubt it was because he wanted to.

 

[gaitano]

I think it's a trust thing. If he can play consistently I think he extra looks will come. His demeanor seemed about as positive as I've seen it, post-game. Whether it was him trying to "say the right things" or whether he really felt it...either way I say good for him. The team needs a healthy chemistry and needs to feel like all are on board. I agree he played well. There were times where it seemed like the offense was out of synch and when we went to him and he hit shots it seemed to help with that.

True, but for him to play consistently he needs to take his shots to get into his rhythm. That is where he is coming from prior pulling on his Cavs uniform. It's a frustrating bind he's been in most of the season.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Love's presence (rebounding ability and outside shooting) against the Bulls completely annihilates their only advantage of being able to go so big. I expect Kevin to have some poor looking statistical games but I also expect him to play winning basketball, because that;s what he's been doing for the last 3 months since we gave him a real C to protect the rim.

 

[tocov]

K Love had a great game tonight IMO. Knocked his 3s mostly, did well in the post, defended well.
Most importantly - looked healthy.

 

[Paul]

Love seemed to come out motivated then quickly became disengaged out there.

Does anyone else notice there's a lot of times where they are setting up the half court offense and he kind of looks at LeBron and raises his arms as if to say "what are we doing here" or "wait that's not the play" or something to that effect? It seems like hes not on the same page and I noticed a couple times today where it seemed like he was trying to post up and someone just shot a contested perimeter shot instead and it seemed like it affected his motivation on subsequent plays. Maybe I'm off on this but he was definitely ineffective today, for whatever reason.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

From what I saw, Love looked to be clearly hurting today. Whenever he moved, it looked like his back was incredibly stiff.

 

[Simmy]

Even if Love is hurting, he's just got to be out there playing hard. We don't actually need him to dominate each game in the Playoffs, nor do we need to see him putting up incredible basketball numbers. We have so many players that can pick up the slack and get the W without his statistical contribution. BUT, we do need his presence and his ability to stretch the floor. He's an integral cog in most offense sets and is really pulling his weight on the defensive end of the floor.

Like Love said himself, even if he's hurting, pick up that broom and get to sweeping. Everything will be needed to win a championship and I'd take a sore, less productive Kevin Love on the floor any day of the week if it meant that the rest of the team would continue to click as it has been over the last 2 months.

 

[cavsfever]

Very disturbing to see Love play so badly after so much rest...I had been hoping rest would get him in shape. If he performs like this throughout the playoffs he could torpedo our title chances...

 

[Paul]

Very disturbing to see Love play so badly after so much rest...I had been hoping rest would get him in shape. If he performs like this throughout the playoffs he could torpedo our title chances...

Yeah it's hard to tell what's going on out there on the floor. There's so many potential factors at play, it's difficult to know how much of it is him being hurt, or him being disengaged, or teammates not looking for him when he's open. He seems to be going through the motions out there. Mozgov and TT are covering a lot of the around the basket stuff offensively, and JR has been so hot lately from 3. That leaves not much for K Love, but I think he could be more engaged and active on the floor. He seems to be sort of loafing around the court and his body language just looks bad. There was a fast break where he hustled down and got an easy layup, but how often does he bother to do that?

Maybe it's a battle of wills between K Love and Blatt (maybe Blatt not calling plays for him), or maybe between Love and LeBron. Maybe Love expects to be fed and the other guys expect him to kind of hustle first, and then be rewarded. Who knows lol. I just hope he can give us 80% K Love, which might be enough. His defense doesn't really strike me as horrible and he is a very good rebounder.

 

[Gimme Some Mo]

You better believe this man will be the reason we win or lose in the playoffs. I'm terrified he doesn't have it in him.

 

[Redzone]

If he's injured, well, that was one of the knocks on him when considering to trade for him and what to give up. I would have thought he would have gotten some inside work versus Detroit when LeBron went to the bench, but I just saw him standing at the arc, getting passes and passing away. One would think, if he was healthy, he would have posted up a little bit. Maybe it was precautionary, to keep him out of the post so as not to aggravate anything.

Maybe this is all a ruse and Blatt has all kinds of plays for Love in the playoffs. Wouldn't that be nice? I do doubt this, though. It may just be that KR was just going off and therefore got the touches tonight.

 

[shoes22]

It’s not even about injury. Love looked totally disengaged mentally as well.

 

[spydy13]

Love looked totally disengaged mentally as well.

Yeah he looked to be moving a little slow at times, but it definitely seemed like the bigger problem was that he didn't care. I think the whole team is just ready for the playoffs to start.