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PORTLAND, Oregon – Kevin Love once again waited patiently for his teammates to leave the field, catching up with injured Portland Trail Blazers swingman CJ McCollum, before starting another pre-game practice. It was the fourth game in a row that Love has been able to test his strained right calf – a nagging injury that has left him out of action since December 27.
As Love continues to progress, a busy schedule with limited practice time has caused him to wait a little longer. The Cavs aren’t going to push him. They will land at home after a disastrous five-game road trip on Tuesday. Then they host the San Antonio Spurs a day later. After that, there are three days until a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most likely, the Cavs will be practicing two of these days, giving Love a chance to test his injury in a different, more competitive environment. If all goes well, he could play soon after. Maybe even next Sunday.
The Cavs could use it.
A band named Cinderella released a song about three decades ago called “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)”. While the Cavs don’t need a reminder of how important Love is, they certainly had one jarring anyway, especially with Larry Nance Jr. suffering from a broken left hand that amplifies the loss of love.
“I don’t think it ever left the appreciation we had for him,” Cavs head coach JB Bickerstaff said Friday afternoon. “What he is capable of bringing is clear. There’s a ton of respect for what Kevin is doing and we don’t feel like it’s diminishing at all. I know how important it is to us, so I don’t know whether to reaffirm it.
Love first injured his calf in the first preseason game. He returned from a two-week absence on Dec. 26, the second regular-season game of the season, and scored 15 points left with nine rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes. With him on the floor that night – a 128-119 double-overtime victory in Detroit – the Cavs outscored the Pistons by 14 points. The next game against Philadelphia, Love made the injury worse and hasn’t played since.
“There are times in games where you can see ‘This is where Kevin would help us’ or’ This is where he would help us settle in. I know right now he would get a foul because we’re in the bonus. ‘ There are those times when you see, ”Bickerstaff said. “He’s taking steps in the right direction. I expect an update in the next week. “
With Love already out – and Nance recently joined the injury list – Bickerstaff is left with a healthy striker: Dean Wade.
For this reason, Bickerstaff was forced to be creative. In the first two games of this road trip, he defied logic and used Andre Drummond and Jarrett Allen together in a wacky two-center lineup that looked like an ’80s playbook. The result was respectable against Phoenix, a team that starts a pair of seven feet. But the Drummond-Allen couple was a disaster against Denver.
Bickerstaff changed tack on Friday night against the smaller Portland Trail Blazers, opting for Taurean Prince as a replacement. But until Love returns, none of the options are appealing.
“I’m really excited to get it back,” Bickerstaff said recently. “We’ve got to get him into live training and stuff like that, to see where he’s at and get his conditioning and everything right before we throw him to the Wolves. But I mean, you have the opportunity to bring back a Hall of Famer, and we’re really excited about it.
The Cavs have lost six in a row, five in double digits. They dropped out of the Eastern Conference playoff table, dipping near the bottom alongside Detroit, Washington, Chicago and Orlando. Cleveland’s offense is broken and archaic, with Andre Drummond as the ineffective focal point. Ranked last of 3 points achieved and attempted per game, the Cavs crossed the 100 point mark in less than half of their games. They rank 27th for the actual percentage of field goals.
Love, a versatile ground-spacing relief valve, should help in all of these areas. He can uncork the paint, providing pathways for Darius Garland and Collin Sexton. In Wednesday’s resounding loss to Denver, the Nuggets sent several bodies into the undersized backcourt. The Nuggets were content to help too much, ignoring any of the threats from the Cleveland perimeter, and the young guards were forced to play in a crowd, resulting in the offense.
An elite rebounder, Love can also help a team that ranks 24th overall and 23rd in defensive rebound percentage. Preventing second chance opportunities – and finishing possessions – can help the decaying defense.
The absence of love was not felt so much the first few weeks. It’s an honor to Nance – a quality starting save and an unannounced linchpin. But playing without both is crippling.
Even with all of his frustrating flaws – the bloated contract, injury history, mood swings – Love is still one of the best and most important players on the team. It has never been so clear.
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