Kevin Love is in store for a big series, whether the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Boston Celtics or the Washington Wizards in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Whether the Cleveland Cavaliers play the Boston Celtics or the Washington Wizards, expect Kevin Love to explode in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Hopefully, fans haven’t forgot how Love exploded for 39 points against the Washington Wizards in February or 30 points against the Boston Celtics in late December. Those would be the second and third highest point totals for any game this season.
All in all, in the three games the Cavs played against Washington, Love averaged 23.3 points and 11.7 rebounds per game while shooting 50.0 percent from the field, 52.9 percent from three-point range and 87.5 percent from three-point range.
His worst performance in those three games came in early. In that game, he scored 14 points, shooting 4-12 from the field and 0-1 from three-point range. The best part of Love’s performance was that he managed to grab 16 rebounds.
Against the Celtics, who the Cavs also played three times in the regular season, Love averaged 23.7 points and 13.0 rebounds per game while shooting 38.5 percent from the field, 37.9 percent from three-point range and 95.2 percent from the free-throw line.
His worst performance against the Celtics this season came on April 5th. Love only scored 15 points, while shooting 5-15 from the field and 1-5 from three-point range. He did, however, manage to grab 16 rebounds.
Love averaged 19.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game in the regular season.
The reason that Love finds so much success against these two teams, in particular, is similar in both cases. Because of the Celtics and Wizards use of small forwards at the power forward position, Love is able to find his rhythm from the post as he’s defended by smaller players. For the Wizards, that player is typically Otto Porter. For the Celtics, that player is typically Jae Crowder.
However for the Celtics, that problem is exacerbated by the lack of size throughout their lineups. Marcus Smart, who finds himself guarding James quite a bit in their matchups, is 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. When he has to switch onto Love, going under screens that leave a player like James open from three (pick your poison, right?), he’ll be abused by Love. That will happen if they choose to go with Avery Bradley or Crowder on James as well.
If they try to go over the screens, James will be able to turn the corner and make plays as a scorer or facilitator while going downhill. With the amount of attention James draws on the perimeter, players often leave themselves vulnerable for James to start a “hockey assist”. Recognizing a defender cheating towards him, James will pass to the player’s man and his teammate will either shoot or, recognizing the rotation coming towards him, pass to another open man on the perimeter.
When the Cavs play the Washington Wizards, forward Markieff Morris always seems to be especially concerned with what James can do with the ball, whether he’s the defender or not.
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Kyrie Irving will draw a lot of attention as well. However, in Irving’s case it’s his ability to draw attention with his ball-handling that allows him to work Love open behind the line rather than his athletic ability.
Irving, whose playmaking has been exceptional since the back half of the regular season, has had great timing on the pick-and-roll and because his ball-handling ability tempts defenses to corral him, all he has to do is wait for a defender to lose sight of Love with his eyes on the prize.
Love’s three-point percentage against both the Celtics and Wizards reflects the amount of space he gets to shoot. The amount of free-throw attempts he gets against both clubs shows how his size advantage allows him to be productive even when his shot isn’t falling.
Love averaged 7.0 free-throw attempts per game against the Celtics this season and 8.0 free-throw attempts per game against the Wizards. In three games, Love averaged 7.7 free-throw attempts per game against the New York Knicks this season. That’s the only other team Love averaged at least 7.0 free-throw attempts per game against.
He averaged 4.9 free-throw attempts per game in the regular season.
After only 13.8 points and 9.1 rebounds in the playoffs up to this point, it’s time for Love to explode. It may come at the expense of James’ scoring if the Cavs play the Celtics, as Irving’s shooting should come around. Irving shot 52.8 percent from the field against Boston in the regular season, far better than what we’ve seen throughout these playoffs, as Irving has been shooting a career-low 39.9 percent shooting from the field through the first eight games of Cleveland’s run.
However, as Irving only shot 38.6 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point range against the Wizards in the regular season and Love was inefficient as well, the ever-efficient King will likely remain aggressive. James shot 54.4 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from three-point range against the Wizards in the regular season.
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