Cleveland Cavaliers All Star forward Kevin Love has cleared the concussion protocol and will play in Thursday’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals in Oracle Arena against the Golden State Warriors.
He missed much of Game 6 and all of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals because of the concussion sustained.
Love, 29, went down after colliding with the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum mere minutes into Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, a game the Cavs won thanks in large part to Lebron James.
The Cavaliers cruised to a 109-99 win in Game 6 and then advanced to their fourth straight NBA Finals with an 87-79 win in Game 7 on the road in Boston.
Love averaged 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game this regular season while, as usual, battling through a long list of injuries, yet he has averaged only 13.9 points and 10.0 rebounds in the playoffs. He is only player on the Cavaliers other than LeBron who is averaging double-digits points in the postseason…. And somehow they have made it this far.
Love is a dependable three-point shooter, shooting 41.5 percent from long range in the regular season, and is a terrific rebounder. He’s also adept at getting fast breaks started with precision long range passes. When he is involved early in a game, Cleveland often plays its best basketball. He averaged 20.5 points and 11.5 boards in the Cavaliers’ dominant sweep of the Toronto Raptors in the conference semifinals.
Having Love back is especially important given the opponent. Golden State is a terrific three-point shooting team that shoots from deep at a high rate, so Cleveland having the services of their most versatile big man is very important, especially on the road where a three point barrage can quickly quiet the raucous Warriors’ home crowd. When healthy, the Warriors also love to play small ball, what many call their “death lineup” or the “Hampton’s five”(although Andre Iguadola will not play in Game 1) featuring no true big on the court, so Love should get plenty of chances to score both outside, as well as inside against smaller defenders. Even when Golden State does go somewhat big, the team has used young guys in Jordan Bell and Kevon Looney, who are both athletic big men, but both are liable to have some growing pains and painful mistakes. Additionally, Love is a terrific pick and roll/pick and pop option both on ball as well as off the ball, making him a key to what the Cavaliers like to generate offensively when James has the ball in his hands. If Love can lift some of the scoring burden off of James’ shoulders and free up others for open looks, Cleveland’s small chance of pulling off the upset definitely goes up if not by a lot, then definitely slightly enough to make some of these games tight.