Concussion protocol is monitor for 24 hours and reevaluate. He could play Wednesday if he doesn’t show any symptoms. Honestly, they might be better off with Channing Frye playing more minutes, anyway. Frye hasn’t seen minutes so far because he’s a defensive liability, but it looks like the Cavs are in desperate need of some offensive firepower.
It is amazing, given the current knowledge about concussion, that he would exhibit on-court signs of concussion after a direct blow to the head, and not be immediately removed from play. It’s not like he was walking around “shaking it off”, the guy was laying on the floor holding his head, unable to get up and play basketball…
Yeah, it’s not like he was even giving them much out there.
Kevin Love or no Kevin Love, the Cavs just aren’t a good match-up for the Warriors. If this were the early 2000s and the Cavs could be more physical and hand-check and all that, they’d have a shot. They’d probably be tied 1-1 or even up 2-0. But Cleveland can’t slow the Warriors down and, even if you had the old rules, the Warriors have fast hands and deadly-accurate shooting. The Cavs came into the playoffs touting the ability to run it up and down the court and shoot three pointers, but what the Cavs were doing, the Warriors do much, much better. It just doesn’t matter what Cleveland does. They can only hope that Curry and Thompson have bad nights from the perimeter and that they get really sloppy on offense. But even so, Cleveland needs to be a much better shooting team to have any hope at all. The way they’re shooting, the Cavs will be done by the end of the week.
I mentioned Kevin’s mind-wandering tendency to my wife, and she immediately replied, “Just like his uncle!”
She was referring, of course, to his father’s cousin – Brian Wilson, he of the famously gifted but wandering mind.
Is Kevin Love a sieve on defense? Will his absence actually improve the team? Anyone think Love is secretly hoping his team loses big for selfish reasons? However, Cavs desperately need scoring and Love being out can’t help that.
I’m sure this won’t be a sweep, I think there’s a very good chance the Cavs win tonight. Tomorrow’s analysts might say its because Love wasn’t there for players to blow by him, but I think it will be more to do with Lebron having a monster game and the Cavs willing themselves to a must win.
I said it would be problematic for the Cavs to be down 0-2. Going down 0-3 will be impossible to overcome. The series basically hinges on tonight. And even if the Cavs win tonight, their chances in the series are still quite poor.
I don’t know if Love’s absence is a net positive. He was much better on home court in the Toronto series. Maybe LeBron will go into all out bleep it mode and just dominate.
The Cavs need a little bit of reckless abandon in the paint. One of the overlord storylines, imho, is the refs swallowing their whistles under the boards. They’re letting them play, and the Dubs were able to capitalize on that in a big way.
I get why home field advantage matters in football - the noise of the crowd actually disrupts the playcalling and audibles of the other team. But why does home field advantage matter so much in basketball or other sports? Presumably these guys at the top of their game, the best in the world and most competitive people there are, give their all regardless of their location. There’s probably a ref bias towards the home crowd, but is that all?
Well that certainly didn’t make kevin love look good.
The Cavs have a heartbeat. But they really need to win again tomorrow night to still have a legit shot at winning the series.
The Warriors had cut the lead from 20 to 8 by halftime and Steph hadn’t done anything. I would have bet on them to win the game running away. LeBron had a bad 2nd quarter, even missed a dunk. Glad to see him and the rest of the team turn it up in the second half.
Regarding Kevin Love, I really don’t know what to make of him. Irving and Smith played a million miles better last night than they did in either games 1 or 2. Was it because Love was out? Was it because they were on their home court? It’s not hard to imagine that Love would have been in on the party last night if he’d played. As I said before, he was better home games in the Raptors series, too.
The crowd is closer to the action than in football or baseball - but ice hockey’s distances should be comparable and you don’t see all those one-sided blowouts for the home team as in the NBA.
Whatever the reason (I saw one analysis today that claimed young and bench players are especially susceptible to the home court effect), it is comical to see sports analysts pontificating about “adjustments” a team made to win after being slammed on the road. All that really happened was they came home. Really good/mature/disciplined NBA teams can win just enough in hostile settings. The Cavaliers probably cannot.
Well going home is not going to get you a 50+ point swing, neither is missing Kevin Love.
Through 4 games against the Raptors, the Cavs were +50 at home and -21 in Toronto. I don’t know why, but Cleveland can be a real turd on the road.
Sure does suck about OKC choking.
[sonicsfan]No, that was wonderful.[/sonicsfan]
For the second consecutive finals, the best basketball player on the planet is carrying a team full of lesser talents and making the NBA finals interesting.
Kevin Love has been exposed over the course of the last few seasons. In Minnesota, under the darkness of anonymity, Love was able to pad his stats. In Cleveland, where the spotlight shines brightly, Love’s lack of defense and offensive inside game have been highlighted.
If I’m Cleveland, I strongly consider limiting Love to 15-20 minutes off the bench for the duration of the series. Come the off season, trade him to the Lakers.
Anderson Verajao was huge in that 3rd quarter.
Irving did have a phone of Jordanesque shots. But the key to me in that game was Draymond Green. He reminds me of Charles Oakley on the c. 1990 Knicks: the heart of the team, who can change the course of the game – matched up against the current best in the business – in ways that don’t always show up on the stat line.
“…a phone…”? I can’t even remember what I was trying to write.
Anyway, Irving had several Jordanesque shots.