Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[Rick Astley]

While there is a verbal battle about how Love is being "misused", which isn't necessarily true because of his great production, I'm just happy he's able to keep up his offensive consistency. One step at a time!

 

[Pioneer10]

The small ball lineup that he went to in the fourth quarter took control of the game defensively and basically froze Charlotte's offense completely out down the stretch.

It was about riding the defensive lineup to a win with the added bonus of keeping one of your star's minutes down. And I have no problem with it.

Bringing Love back in at the end, when the Hornets literally couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, would have simply been a move to placate his ego. Not to say they couldn't have also won with Kevin on the court, but why mess with something when it is working?



Their offense died a much worse death in that fourth quarter than ours. We can win ugly sometimes. It doesn't always have to be a clinic in offensive basketball.

This is the same sort of reasoning that leads to teams making so few substitutions on overtime despite the fact thay fresh body usually kills it. The team got back in the game but they couldnt buy a bucket n the last 4 minutes. Good teams constantly adjust and if Batum ad hit a pretty good look from 3 we would have likely lost.

With the amount of timouts left on both sides they culd have gone offense and defense

 

[LeShaq]

Charlotte is a very good team. Don't undersell them.

I'm a Kevin Love Nuthugger and I have no issue with Love sitting out the 4th. We needed the win, the unit on the floor won.

On to the next game.

 

[Jscc]

An explanation via Jason Lloyd's final thoughts:

Kevin Love had a double-double by halftime. He scored 18 points and grabbed 16 rebounds through three quarters. Yet apparently he approached David Blatt at some point during the fourth quarter and said he was ready if needed, but to keep rolling with the unit on the floor as long as it was working. As a result, Love watched 11 minutes, 58 seconds of the fourth while the Hornets made six baskets and shot 26 percent in the quarter.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

The way the offense just died in the last 3 minutes we got a bit lucky. Sure we won but that is nowhere how you want to end the games. When things were clickijg we used good ball.movement to pull away in the 4th. Not this game

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We used good ball-movement to take the lead, but EVERYBODY slows down and plays iso in the last 3 minutes, when they lead. We WOULD have pulled away, except for three awful calls, in close succession. Also, LeBron had a three go in and out, that would have pushed the lead to 7.

So we did all right down the stretch, under difficult circumstances.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

The small ball lineup that he went to in the fourth quarter took control of the game defensively and basically froze Charlotte's offense completely out down the stretch.

It was about riding the defensive lineup to a win with the added bonus of keeping one of your star's minutes down. And I have no problem with it.

Bringing Love back in at the end, when the Hornets literally couldn't throw the ball in the ocean, would have simply been a move to placate his ego. Not to say they couldn't have also won with Kevin on the court, but why mess with something when it is working?



Their offense died a much worse death in that fourth quarter than ours. We can win ugly sometimes. It doesn't always have to be a clinic in offensive basketball.

Bringing Love in wouldn't have just been about placating his ego. It would also have been about rebounding and foul-shooting - two very important skills to have at the ends of basketball games.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

An explanation via Jason Lloyd's final thoughts:

I thought he was being unfair to Love with his points about his defense- tonight it was fine and was not the reason we were down. The Hornets weren't going at him or even scoring a lot in the paint. Walker and Batum were giving us problems in the first 3 quarters and we shut them down in the 4th.(They also took a lot of bad shots) Our guards really struggled, especially in the first half.

I have no problem with going with the hot lineup, though there was a point in the last few minutes where we could have iced the game but couldn't, and I thought he could have given us a boost there. It all worked out in the end, so whatever.

 

[Tornicade]

Bringing Love in wouldn't have just been about placating his ego. It would also have been about rebounding and foul-shooting - two very important skills to have at the ends of basketball games.

you had two elite rebounders out on the court.

putting in love would of meant taking out Jefferson or Jr smith who were doing well in their matchups. They could of but whats the point.
The back ups (Delly and Jefferson) played more than well enough to keep them on the floor.

Why take out Thompson or move Lebron back to the three when you didnt need to.

maybe in another game in the exact situation they do make that move but not tonight.

I dont think Love has anything to prove

 

[Paul]

Credit to Kevin Love for thinking about the W first and making it no big deal that he sat in the 4th. The team got the win and it seemed to demonstrate better communication and a greater sense of ease in the relationship between Love and Blatt.

 

[tocov]

Why take out Thompson or move Lebron back to the three when you didnt need to.

Especially when we were exploiting him kicking ass at the 4 and that is what consistently got us points.

 

[LeShaq]

Kevin Love has the 20th-best PER among qualified players in the NBA (22.3):

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics

Additionally, Love is the 4th-best "sidekick" in terms of PER in the league currently among players who play 20 or more minutes per game. The 3 players above him in that regard (along with the player on the team with the highest PER):

Durant -- Thunder (Westbrook)
Chris Paul -- Clippers (Griffin)
Enes Kanter -- Thunder (Westbrook)

Love is playing very well, and I'm glad he was on board with what took place in the 4th quarter last night.

Here are Love's shooting percentages this season as compared with his numbers in his monster year [2013-14] in Minnesota (Minnesota numbers in red):

45/39/86 ---- .586 TS
46/38/82 ---- .591 TS

Basically, Love is putting up nearly identical shooting stats as he did in his super year with the Wolves. He's just taking fewer shots per game and taking more 3's than he did with the Wolves. Also, his free throw attempts per game are down from the super Minnesota year (3.9 vs 8.2) likely because Love is spending a lot more time on the perimeter now than he did in Minnesota.

Love just needs to keep playing as he is. He's doing a great job and hopefully his play will only improve as the year goes on and the team gets better chemistry and more depth with players returning.

 

[Bob Loblaw]

He is averaging 21.4/12.4 on .490/.455/.826 shooting in his last 10 games.

 

[Otsego Mar]

Keep your best players out on the court in crunch time.

Next.

 

[Baseline Runner]

He is averaging 21.4/12.4 on .490/.455/.826 shooting in his last 10 games.

Only a couple of weeks ago he was getting lambasted for having a sub-40 shooting percentage. I had to remind people it was a small sample size.

Im shocked this has 11 likes but its spot on. I was so excited for Love to come here because I always just saw his amazing stats but when you watch him play, you can easily see why the Twolves didnt get anywhere. Aside from hitting a few clutch threes here and there, absolutely nothing has impressed me about him, in fact, his play actually disgusts me.

Hes statistically the worst defending big in the league and is shooting 40% from the field. Just stop. We criticize him because deserves it usually.

Love is slightly better than the average nba player. He looked great playing with a crappy team some people thought he was a top 5 player. He looks so inferior next to a real superstar like Lebron. He's overrated it is what it is.

It's actually the opposite. He's shot 50% twice this season (never higher). He's shot in the 30%s quite often.

FUCK FACTS! JUST LET ME SAY LOVE SUX BECAUSE I WANT THE TEAM TO WIN SO BAD IN NOVEMBER REGARDLESS OF OUR INJURY CONCERNS!

 

[Otsego Mar]

Love your fellow white brother.