Cavs still need Kevin Love to beat the Warriors -- Bud Shaw's Sports Spin
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cavs showed up desperate in Game 3. The Warriors arrived as if everything were — in the words of the angry poet Draymond Green — “peaches and cream.”
So you know what that means.
What happened Wednesday night must be all about Kevin Love?
Give him his participation ribbon and be done with him?
Not exactly.
Seems a little premature based on a night when human nature ruled the NBA Finals matchup as much as anything else, a night when the Warriors missed open looks, Steph Curry looked half asleep, and the Cavs knew their season was in utter peril.
“I think the game would have been the same whether he played or not,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after Love spent Game 3 in the league’s concussion protocol.
“This was about one team being emotionally fired up and angry about being down 2-0, and another team being comfortable. So I don’t think that had anything to do with it. I think it was just the level of intensity that they brought. They would’ve brought that with Kevin, too.”
I know what you’re thinking. Kerr would say that, wouldn’t he? He wants no part of the Cavs new “death lineup?”
He obviously fears Richard Jefferson, who before Wednesday night last made a NBA Finals start 13 years ago.
Cavs show up ready to play, for starters
The Cavs lost the first two games because much went wrong.
For one thing, those games were played somewhere other than the Q.
They lost twice in Toronto, too, remember? (Thanks a lot, Love.)
The Cavs are undefeated at home in the playoffs for a reason. The Warriors were great at home during the regular season (and mostly in the playoffs) for the same reason.
Golden State showed its desperation and championship grit against Oklahoma City after falling behind 3-1. The Cavs demonstrated theirs when the geography changed and the occasion made them feel cornered.
The Cavs won Game 3 in part because Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson showed up, because they found shots for J.R. Smith.
That happened often over the past two years with Love on the floor as well. Actually, it happened as recently as Toronto and Atlanta.
What the Cavs discovered in Game 3 was another option, and not an entirely new one.
Tristan Thompson rallies to rule the boards
Love has seen his role diminished in fourth quarters as recently as the Toronto series.
Playing Richard Jefferson and putting LeBron at power forward made the Cavs more agile and caused issues for Green. That issue: James playing his best defense of the series. But Green also missed wide open shots as did Curry and Klay Thompson.
The Cavs won also because they didn’t switch nearly as much defensively as they did in the first two games. Less switching? That could benefit one player in particular. Oh, yeah, Kevin Love.
Less switching put the Cavs in better position to command the boards, as they did 52-32. You know who can rebound? Kevin Love.
After the Warriors dominated at home, Kerr dropped a Phil Jackson reference in saying he learned “there’s something powerful about everybody playing.”
Ty Lue certainly has a decision to make about how to use Love in the rest of the series, provided Love is released from concussion protocol.
Game 3 gives Lue another option. He has spent the season building Love’s confidence, even overstating his value by calling him a Top 10 player. He’s not that for sure.
But he’s an important piece. There’s a middle ground between Kevin Love as a Big Three component in this matchup and suddenly being the Cavs version of David Lee.
It’s Lue’s obligation to find it because it will take an angry village to beat the Warriors.
Cavs still need Kevin Love to beat the Warriors -- Bud Shaw"s Sports Spin
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