It was an interesting week throughout the NBA, with COVID-19 becoming a large problem nearly two years after the pandemic beginning. However, the Cleveland Cavaliers continued their winning ways, going 3-0 with wins over the Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, and the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks.
But, they also had a scheduled game versus the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday night that was postponed because of the amount of players in the NBA’s health and safety protocols. Isaac Okoro, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen, among a couple of others, have been placed in the health and safety protocols during this past week. To make matters worse, Ed Davis was placed in the protocols earlier on Tuesday as well, per a team press release.
The NBA will have to deal with how to handle the outbreaks, as it doesn’t seem like COVID is going anywhere anytime soon. However, let’s take a look at the Cavs player of the week for their 3-0 week.
Kevin Love was the Cavs’ standout from this past week.
I’ll admit, the timeline before the season, involving Kevin Love was far from hopeful. We thought we would watch him play his way back into shape on the USA squad at the Tokyo Olympics. He wouldn’t get a lot of minutes, but it would great to see him back on the court and getting into season-shape. Unfortunately, he pulled out of the Olympics due to a calf injury, and it looked like we’d be watching another Cavalier season where Kevin Love gets paid a lot of money to not do much.
Ironically, this season Kevin Love has been the opposite. He’s embraced the bench role, and is playing his best basketball since the 2016 championship run.
Love came off the bench last Monday and lit up the scoreboard versus Miami. He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds. On top of that he shot 5-of-8 from the three-point line, with all of his scoring in the second half. He carried that momentum into the Rockets game and was once again a force off the bench. He contributed 15 points and six rebounds in his reserve role, while also lighting it up from outside on 3-of-5 shooting.
In what ended up being the last game of the week for the shorthanded Cavaliers, they beat the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks, and Love played a key role; granted, Milwaukee was shorthanded too, but Love’s performance was impressive once again. Coming off the bench, he again had 15 points, 7 rebounds, and even dished out four assists.
During the week as a whole, Love was outstanding, and his defense has gotten better. Part of which is because he constantly has 7-footers around him, but he also just looks like he is enjoying playing basketball for the first time in a while. On the week the former UCLA forward averaged 17.7 points per game, seven rebounds, all while shooting 43 percent from deep. It’s honestly been great to watch Love celebrate while on the bench, and just look like he’s enjoying himself.
It was a great week all around, minus COVID-19.
Other than the COVID outbreak the Cavs are dealing with right now, there is nothing else to complain about with this team at the moment. They’ve reeled off six straight wins, and have firmly planted themselves in third place in the Eastern Conference, only 2.5 games back from the first-place Brooklyn Nets.
Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen have both been incredible this season, and looked great this past week as well. However, I have a funny feeling that one or both of them might find their names on the All-Star roster in February, so I had to give the award to the Love Machine.
With so many NBA teams dealing with some kind of COVID-19-related issue, it’s tough to predict how these next couple of weeks will play out. With that being said, the team is scheduled to take on the Boston Celtics again this season on Tuesday night. As long as it is played, it will be the last Cavalier game before Christmas, as their next scheduled game is on Dec. 26 against the Toronto Raptors.
Regarding this past week’s slate, though, Kevin Love is your Player of the Week for Dec. 13-19, and hopefully he can keep playing well going forward.