Kevin Love’s tweet has to bring up memories of Cavs’ 2015 Finals injuries for fans

The Golden State Warriors had a rough injury situation in the 2019 NBA Finals, and a recent tweet by Cleveland Cavaliers star Kevin Love had to have brought up some unfortunate injury memories Cleveland fans had.

The Toronto Raptors defeated the Golden State Warriors in six games to win the team’s first NBA championship, and they rightfully deserve to celebrate. What can’t be ignored, though, is the Warriors being noticeably short-handed in the series, and the Cleveland Cavaliers can relate to that on the biggest stage.

Golden State was without megastar Kevin Durant for nearly all of the series due to a reported calf injury, who is, by my estimation, the best offensive player currently in the NBA.

It was also completely and utterly awful that KD reportedly suffered an Achilles tear in Game 5 (h/t USA TODAY’s Jeff Zillgitt), and I hope he recovers fully. Klay Thompson, who was playing through a reported hamstring injury in the series, also reportedly suffered an ACL tear in Game 6, per Wojnarowski, and I wish him the best of luck, too.

After Thompson had that unfortunate injury happen to him, Cavs star big Kevin Love tweeted about how awful the injury was to Thompson (h/t Cavaliers Nation’s Jonathan Sherman), and this is something Cleveland fans could absolutely relate to, as the Cavaliers had their share during the 2015 postseason.

Thompson’s ACL injury was awful for him, especially in a game where he was playing really well and realistically, keeping the Dubs in it against a tough Toronto team.

Thompson had 30 points on eight-of-12 shooting, to go with being 10-of-10 from the free throw line (per CBS Sports) and having five rebounds and two steals (per CBS Sports), and he had 26.0 points per game on an amazing 70.6% true shooting rate in the Finals (per NBA.com).

Unfortunately for Golden State, Thompson being out in Game 3 due to the aforementioned hamstring issue played a key role in them losing that one, too, and again, Cavs fans can relate to this sort of thing.

Additionally, it wasn’t good for the Dubs with versatile defender and good offensive rebounder/screen setter in Kevon Looney reportedly playing with fractured cartilage in his ribcage, to go with a banged-up calf for Andre Iguodala, and DeMarcus Cousins playing while recently coming off a torn quadriceps muscle (all h/t NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole).

Looney was injured in Game 2 and somehow played in Games 4-6, though, but he clearly was ailing, as Golden State Of Mind’s Brady Klopfer demonstrated.

Looking back to the 2015 NBA Finals, LeBron James kept the Cleveland Cavaliers in it (they would eventually lose in six games to the Warriors), even with Kyrie Irving going down in overtime of Game 1 in that one.

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Irving reportedly fractured his kneecap (h/t SB Nation’s Tim Cato), and Love wasn’t in the series at all due to a reported dislocated shoulder (h/t CBS Sports’ James Herbert) in Cleveland’s first-round series against the Boston Celtics (he also would miss the two rounds before the Finals).

Back to 2019, props to Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Toronto anyway, as they scratched and clawed to a victory and won all three of their road games at Oracle Arena, which is really unheard of.

That being said, it’s pretty difficult to not think “what if?” a bit with KD being a near-complete zero in the series, Thompson being hobbled and the other reported injuries referenced.

Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor also added a bit in relation to the 2015 Cleveland comparison to the Warriors in 2019, and although LeBron didn’t miss a Finals in Cleveland, it still shows that injuries were a key part of this year’s series, anyhow.

Yes, Leonard’s quad was not 100.0% and he reportedly was fighting through a knee injury as a result of that (per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Sam Amick, subscription required), and per that report, Lowry had a ligament tear in his thumb.

Nonetheless, their injuries weren’t close to what the Cleveland Cavaliers and James had to deal with in regards to Love and Irving being mostly non-factors, in addition to what Stephen Curry and the Dubs had to endure to even stretch this Finals to six games against one of the more complete teams in the league.

Granted, I also give kudos to the Raps for being aggressive and trading for Marc Gasol near the 2019 trade deadline, and taking a huge risk in trading for Leonard (who is an unrestricted free agent this summer) last offseason.

Once again, though, with the injury to Thompson as Love alluded to in his tweet, and the other injuries to the Warriors, it reminded me (and likely other Cavs fans) of Cleveland’s predicament in 2015, and if the Cavs were fully healthy in that Finals, maybe Cleveland has another ring, considering they beat Golden State in the 2016 Finals.

Also, if you give LeBron a chance against Golden State without Durant involved, I don’t think it’s totally hyperbolic that the Cavs have a much better chance at victory over Golden State, too, even last year, as Game 1 and Game 3 were very, very close.

Once again, though, congratulations, Toronto.