BOSTON — When the Cleveland Cavaliers gave up multiple quality assets, including 2014 No. 1 draft pick Andrew Wiggins, to acquire star power forward Kevin Love from the Minnesota Timberwolves in August, they envisioned he’d give them excellent playoff performances like he did Thursday night.
Love scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds to help the Cavs take a 3-0 first-round playoff series lead over the Boston Celtics with a 103-95 win at TD Garden.
Despite owning a repertoire of impressive low-post moves, Love primarily is an outside threat for the Cavaliers, which makes sense considering the team’s offense is built around two players — LeBron James and Kyrie Irving — capable of penetrating the perimeter and making defenders collapse to the paint, which frees up open shots from beyond the arc. Despite consistently playing near the perimeter, Love still was one of just six players to average more than 16 points and nine rebounds this season.
In Game 3, Love was feeling it from 3-point land, where he hit on six of his 10 attempts, including a dagger with 26 seconds remaining that put Cleveland up by eight.
“I felt like I played with a lot more confidence (Thursday night),” Love said after the game. “In the first game, it was getting that first one underneath my belt. I played pretty well, I thought our team played well. In the second game, I just got into foul trouble, and there’s not much you can do about that. I thought we played really well (Thursday night).”
Love has been criticized this season for not consistently playing at the level of a superstar. This criticism is 99 percent foolish because his skill set isn’t the perfect fit on this Cavs team. Love is most effective as a low-post player and that isn’t the type of game Cleveland plays.
James compared the criticism of Love to what Chris Bosh received as part of the Miami Heat’s “Big 3” from 2010-11 through 2013-14. Bosh didn’t post the same stats from his Toronto Raptors days because he wasn’t the primary option offensively, not because he suddenly wasn’t a superstar player anymore. The same is true of Love in Cleveland. He wasn’t going to match his 26.1 points per game average from last season playing with James and Irving.
“The one thing about (Love), he’s always stayed positive, I’ve always believed in him,” James said. “I don’t really get too involved in what everybody says. I know what type of player he is, what type of competitor he is, and I know he relishes this opportunity to be part of this franchise and be a part of the postseason.
“So, with everything said with the first eight months of the season, he’s definitely used that as motivation, I believe. I think he’s a big-time player. He’s a very cerebral basketball player, and in order for us to be the team that we want to be long term, Kevin is going to be Kevin. Which he was (Thursday night).”
Love has heard the critics his entire career, and now he has an opportunity to shut them up in his first career playoff appearance. So far, he’s given the Cavs two very good performances in his first three games, proving he’s capable of thriving on basketball’s brightest stage.
“Well listen, first and foremost, people have focused my whole career on what I couldn’t do rather than what I could do,” Love said.
“So, I know that my teammates and the coaching staff have my back and I know that the organization has my back, and I’m sending the love right back to them. I think (Thursday night) was one of those times when my number was called to step up and hit a big shot.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
