The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame the lowly Orlando Magic yesterday with Kevin Love sitting the entire 4th quarter. Many noted that near the end of the game and came up with some spectacular thoughts and ideas. We start with an interesting statistic:
From ESPN Stats & Info: ORL shot 57% with Kevin Love on the floor Friday, including 70% in paint. With Love on bench? 35% & 33% in paint
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 27, 2014
Well those are significantly lower numbers without love, must mean the Cavs are just better with out him on the floor. It must have really frustrated Love that he wasn’t put back in the game to help his team win, right? Not so fast. Instead we find out after the game that coach David Blatt had tried to put Love back in the game only for Love to encourage/tell the coach that the team was playing better without him:
So instead of this being a big deal like Bill Simmons and Brian Windhorst thought it was:
@BillSimmons Also Cavs best defensive quarter of the night. Significantly.
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) December 27, 2014
It was a case of a very good, and very intelligent player, seeing what was best for the team and sacrificing for the good of the team.
That doesn’t sell papers or get people talking as much as talking about one of perhaps the 10 or 15 best players in the league being benched for a quarter. It does say a ton about Kevin Love and his respect and knowledge for the game. Love wants his team to win and if that does not include him on the court sometimes he seems fine with it.
What that means for the Cavaliers is that they can feel comfortable that Love understands the game of basketball and will be willing to take the right steps to help the team win. With the way that the Cavs are playing offense, mostly isolation basketball from LeBron James, Kyrie Irving or Dion Waiters, it could fall to Love to push the team to run Blatt’s offense.
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Kevin Love sat all of the 4th quarter last night. The Cavs were much better defensively with him off the court. Love is one of the 10 to 15 best players in the league and can become a free agent after the season. And none of that matters.
Kevin Love sat last night because he cared what was best for the team and sacrificed his playing time, and the possible media scrutiny, to do the best/right thing. Love is the type of player the Cavs will need around their other two superstars, LeBron and Kyrie, and, if he is a man of his word, he will be paired with those two for years to come.
The Cavs, Cleveland and the fans are far better off with Love on our side. All you need is Love.
Are you surprised to hear why Kevin Love sat all of the 4th quarter last night?