Kevin Love just can’t get away from the injury bug, and sitting him for the rest of this season would seem to be a wise decision by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are closing the year on a much better note as they’ve gotten healthier, and key young pieces, Collin Sexton and Cedi Osman especially, are giving the organization plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the near future. Kevin Love has looked really good, too, since the All-Star break, and we’ve detailed how his inside-out scoring presence and basketball IQ has helped Cleveland’s offense immensely when he’s played a big minutes-share.
Post-All-Star break, Love has averaged 18.6 points on 61.4 percent true shooting and 11.4 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game, per NBA.com.
The results have been there for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ star big man, but he still can’t seem to stay healthy. Coming into last night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, Love was cleared to play after dealing with lower back soreness from a hard fall over the weekend against the Dallas Mavericks (h/t Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor).
Then after playing 18 minutes against Milwaukee, in which he shot just one-for-10 (including one-for-nine from three-point range, though he did secure 10 rebounds, per ESPN), Love was involved in a head-to-head collision with the Bucks’ Eric Bledsoe.
He was then ruled questionable, per Fox Sports Ohio’s Angel Gray, and was eventually out of the contest for good after heading to the locker room with 9:10 left in the third quarter (per Fedor).
Cleveland head coach Larry Drew said that Love “didn’t seem to be himself,” (per Fedor) and that had to be all-telling for the Cavs in the beginning of the second half (per Fedor).
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As a side note, the Cavaliers would go on win the game against the short-handed Bucks, who were missing a number of key pieces, including MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was reportedly out due to rest.
In the process, Collin Sexton became the first Cleveland Cavaliers rookie to score at least 23 points in seven consecutive games, which hasn’t happened league-wide since Tim Duncan did it back with the San Antonio Spurs in 1998 (h/t Uproxx’s Jordan Zirm).
Sexton and Osman (and Jordan Clarkson to a large degree) have gotten better in crunch time recently, and with them getting more experience in tight late-game situations (even with the rest of the season not being about wins and losses, really), it’s all the more reason to sit Love down for the last 10 games of 2018-19.
Love was evaluated by the Cavaliers’ medical staff in the locker room for a head injury, considering the collision, and with that being the case, along with Love’s back soreness, it would be a sensible move for Love to just sit these last 10 games of this year.
Though Tristan Thompson (who returned yesterday after a long absence due to foot soreness) will likely be in a limited role for the last part of the season, he can help the frontcourt some as a screener and rebounder, and Larry Nance Jr. (who also returned yesterday after dealing with a chest contusion) should be able to play considerable minutes.
Marquese Chriss can continue to get minutes off the bench, too.
Love being healthier going into the offseason is what matters for the Cleveland Cavaliers, so they should take the necessary precaution and sit him the rest of 2018-19.