Cleveland Cavaliers Player of the Week for Jan. 24-30

This past week’s slate of games was a decent one for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have now vaulted their way back up in the Eastern Conference standings. The Wine and Gold are 30-20 in this 2021-22 season, which has them at fourth in the East.

The Cavaliers had been tightening the screws again on the defensive end in their first two games, and while Cleveland is still reportedly seeking perimeter/wing help via trade, the ball and man movement from the club is leading to plenty of in-rhythm looks.

That’s led to the bigs and cutters getting going inside, and off that, guys such as Kevin Love, Dean Wade, and in some work off-ball, Darius Garland, have gotten knockdown catch-and-shoot looks. We saw that on plenty of occasions in Cleveland’s past week’s slate of games, where they went 2-1 with a close win over the New York Knicks on Monday and a signature W over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday, and then unfortunately they had a stinker at the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.

So, with that having been the case, though, who was the standout performer for the Wine and Gold this past week, then?

The Cleveland Cavaliers Player of the Week for Jan. 24-30 was Kevin Love, who has gotten back on track for the bench unit.

Love had been slumping, to some degree, leading into this past week; in his past 11 games in January prior to that Knicks contest, he had connected on 30.6 percent of his 5.6 three-point attempts per outing. He had 12.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in those 21.9 minutes per outing in that span still, and his shooting presence is always impactful, either way, and the dude was on fire in December, anyhow.

The gist is, Love has generally given a big lift to Cleveland’s bench, and he often can help stabilize things for the Cavs when he’s in there.

This past week, he was back on track again from deep, too, though, and the Cavs needed it. Cleveland won in mostly a sloppy 95-93 game against New York this past Monday, and with that playing out, Love’s 20 points, 11 rebounds and three assists in 24 minutes were huge. I didn’t read a ton into his three turnovers then, given the other contributions.

He did most of his scoring damage in the first half, which, from the field, was all three-point attempts in the game, where he was 6-of-12; regardless, it was crucial for the Cavaliers. That was even more paramount, considering Jarrett Allen was not active in that one, because of a non-COVID-19-related illness.

From there, Love was outstanding in his reserve minutes for Cleveland against Milwaukee, and tied his season-high with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, which included him going 5-of-9 from three. He, along with Cedi Osman, provided a spark in the first quarter, when the Bucks were on fire, and then following that, Love and Osman kept it going in extended stretches to help the Cavs take control of the game.

The efforts of those two were significant, and helped Cleveland’s bench outscore Milwaukee’s 57-16. Osman had 23 points in that contest, and he tied a career-best with six threes, which was good to see, as he had been way off in recent weeks, and had a decent game versus Detroit to follow that up, as an aside.

As far as the Detroit game for Love, it wasn’t close to those others, as he had eight points in 19 minutes, but he did have seven rebounds. And for the spark he provided in those two other contests, I’m going with Love for this latest Cavs Player of the Week.

In regard to other notable performers for this past week, Darius Garland did have his struggles against New York for stretches, as evidenced by six turnovers and a 6-of-19 shooting night, but he did still have some big baskets leading to 13 points, and had 12 assists.

Even with him needing to leave for much of the second half, he was superb versus the Bucks, too, and handled Jrue Holiday pretty well I thought that go-round, en route to 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting, to go with eight assists, and he hit 3-of-5 from deep. He and Cleveland overall left much to be desired down the stretch versus Detroit, however, he did still have 24 points and seven assists.

Additionally, even as teams start to be even more physical against Evan Mobley, he’s still found ways to produce consistently, and his defensive rebounding positioning is beginning to get better in recent games, to some degree.

He needs to sharpen up his free throw shooting, as evidenced by him going 3-of-7 versus New York and 4-of-9 at Detroit, and Allen needs to as well, for what it’s worth, but Mobley continues to be so impressive for a rookie on both ends. He had 16.3 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game in those three outings, and had a statement jam over Giannis Antetokounmpo.

As we hit on, though, given what he provided in those games against the Knicks and Bucks as a reserve, I went with Love as Cleveland’s Player of the Week this last go-round.