Kevin Love is heating up now for Cavs, which is a welcomed sight

Kevin Love had been struggling as a three-point shooter for a considerable portion of his appearances for the Cleveland Cavaliers up until recently, but it appeared to only be a matter of time before he’d get it going.

Now, Love was aiding Cleveland in the games prior to him having an extended absence because of COVID-19 health and safety protocols and him reportedly dealing with the virus. He has seemingly been fully bought into his new role off the bench this season, and although he won’t live up to his contract, and has not in the past few seasons, largely due to injury, Love can still make a difference for the Cavaliers.

As we alluded to, he had been helping the Cavs in other ways even with the threes not consistently dropping until this recent batch of games, as a mid-post and occasional low-post player, floor spacer, secondary playmaker and rebounder.

Plus, I do acknowledge that Love’s team defense and effort, particularly on closeouts, has been far better this season than in the past few years prior; we don’t need to get into the past years’ in-game episodes at times/the visible frustration.

That said, while I’m not suggesting he’s going to be the shooting presence he once was, given the bench role and him not being available much last season, Love is starting to get it going again. In his first eight appearances this season, he had shot only 20.7 percent from three on 3.6 attempts in 20.8 minutes per outing.

He has gotten himself in a great rhythm, for the most part, since his return from that near-three-week absence, however. In Love’s last seven games in there, he’s hit 46.2 percent from three on 5.6 attempts per game, in which he’s played 19.4 minutes. He’s averaged 12.7 points in those contests, and has had 7.7 rebounds per appearance.

Love is heating up for the Cavs bench, which is a welcomed sight.

Love is likely going to have some streakiness as a catch-and-shoot threat, as one would imagine in a bench role, but it’s been encouraging to see him find his stroke again as he’s gotten well acclimated again since his return.

Love was admittedly 2-of-8 in a win over the Orlando Magic last Saturday, and 1-of-5 from three. In the two games following that, though, he connected on 8-of-10 three-point attempts, and helped ignite Cleveland in blowout wins at the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.

The Heat were without Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in that one, sure; either way, Love and company got the job done convincingly 111-85, as KJG’s John Suchan expressed, which was refreshing. The Cavaliers hadn’t won in Miami since 2010.

In that game, Love was 6-of-9 overall, and had it going from three, where he was 6-of-8. He was 4-of-4 at the free throw line as well, en route to 22 points; he added six rebounds and three assists, too, and even had two blocks and a steal in his 21 minutes.

In that Dallas game, Love made an impact in his 17 minutes also, with 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting, including 2-of-2 from deep, and he was 2-of-2 at the foul line. His five rebounds helped Cleveland’s cause too, and as we noted, his rebounding, especially on the defensive glass, has been a constant from him, which shouldn’t be glossed over.

Granted, Love was not particularly on from deep in Cleveland’s fourth straight big W at the Washington Wizards on Friday, a game where Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen had 32 and 28 points, respectively, but Love did still have 13 points and nine boards in 18 minutes. He was 1-of-4 from three, however, he was 4-of-4 from the foul line, and he was one of the more notable bench guys.

Anyway, even with Love being in a reduced role at this point with the Cavs, and there feasibly being some streakiness with his deep shooting, he’s made a difference for this team, with full buy-in. That’s provided he stays healthy, of course.

In any case, we’ll again have to see, but Love is starting to heat up for Cleveland, and his chemistry with guys such as Darius Garland and Ricky Rubio, to go with Evan Mobley, is taking foothold.

It’s still evident that when he’s in there, Love’s an impact contributor for the Cavs bench, even at 33.