The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to try and make the Kevin Love experiment work. As the Cavaliers sit on top of the Eastern Conference, head coach Tyronn Lue believes that Love will be the X factor to getting Cleveland success in the playoffs. With a few weeks left in the regular season, the Cavaliers are trying to figure out a system that gets Love more involved while getting Cleveland wins. That was on full display Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings despite the frustration from LeBron James.
The Cavaliers got a 120-111 win over the Sacramento Kings even if their game plan almost cost them. Love is sitting in an offensive slump right now and Cleveland tried to get him out of that on Wednesday night. He entered the game shooting 33 percent. That did not change at the start of the game where he missed 9 of his first 12 shots. The Cavaliers continued to feed Love the ball regardless of how many misses he got. The forward finished with 17 points, but went 4 for 13 from the field and 2 for 8 from long range. James admitted it was frustrating at times.
"That was the game plan coach wanted," James said. "We just tried to get him in a rhythm. It worked well for us at times, at times it slowed us up, but we were still able to keep him in a good rhythm."
Love knows that he is struggling. Force-feeding him the ball is not going to change that. The forward is getting open looks, but is unable to make the shots fall. Getting Love back into a good rhythm will be critical for the Cavaliers heading into the postseason, but forcing it might not be the answer. Lue will need to find a balance between getting Love involved and finding an offensive system that results in wins.
"Truthfully, I've been getting a lot of great shots, a lot of wide open shots...and it's hitting the back rim," Love said. "Those are ones that usually fall for me, just lately they haven't."
The win against the Kings was good for the Cavaliers' confidence, but the team still has a lot of improving to do. James made it clear that the Cavaliers are not yet a playoff team. They need to figure out Love's role in the offense. The team needs to stop with the turnovers. Kyrie Irving and James need more consistency on the court. The Cavaliers, like last season, have the roster that screams NBA title, but if they cannot figure out how to gel the wins will not come.
"I can sit up here and say that we're a team that's ready to start the playoffs tomorrow, but we're not," James said. "We're still learning. We still have things that happen on the court that just, that shouldn't happen."
