Thursday NBA Roundup: Don’t Sleep on Kevin Love’s Value to Cavs Big 3

Remember, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Big Three is comprised of a trio of players: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. 

Though it’s easy to remember the first two as they rack up highlights and post gaudy box-score figures, Love can often fly under the radar. But every once in a while, he explodes, as he did while helping spark a 124-118 victory over the resilient Boston Celtics. 

Irving will inevitably get a lot of love in the coming days for his performance against Avery Bradley’s pestilent defense and Isaiah Thomas’s attempts at defense. He finished with 32 points, five rebounds and 12 assists on 12-of-17 shooting. He also produced the highlight below and came up with a number of clutch buckets after Boston clawed its way back from a 20-point deficit.

Share Tweet Embed

James, as always, will get attention. Even though he struggled with his jumper and dealt with turnover issues throughout the night, he recorded 23 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists. 

But let’s not overlook Love. 

All season, the power forward has played like the star Cleveland envisioned when it originally traded Andrew Wiggins to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He’s been engaged on the glass. He’s scored both on the blocks and from beyond the arc. His outlet passing has sparked fast breaks, and lining up next to an improved Tristan Thompson has allowed him to play better defense in a role with less leverage.

Share Tweet

That was all on display Thursday, as Love went for 30 points, 15 rebounds, two assists and two steals while shooting 10-of-22 from the field, 6-of-16 from downtown and 4-of-4 from the charity stripe. His triples extended the team’s lead early in the second half, and his energy on the boards was relentless, even after knee-to-knee contact with DeAndre Liggins left him hobbling for a brief spell.

Love will never be the leading star for Cleveland.

But he’s quickly becoming one of the NBA’s most reliable safety valves. That much was clear in the first quarter when he posted 15 points, adding to his league-best opening-period scoring average:

Kevin Love had 15 pts in the 1st qtrHe averages an NBA best 9.2 PPG in the 1st qtr this season pic.twitter.com/m8VPDXZ0YQ

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) December 30, 2016

As seen below, he made the C’s pay for their decision to ICE a pick-and-roll between him and Irving: 

Share Tweet Embed

Boston had to guard Cleveland’s dynamic point guard in single coverage as soon as it realized Love was thriving as a spot-up shooter, and the trouble was compounded by his willingness to swing the ball around the horn and find open shooters. 

He’s actually been doing this all season, as Synergy Sports pointed out: 

Kevin Love is shooting 50% on spot up jumpers this season, good for 1.59 PTS per possession, the top mark in the NBA among volume shooters.

— Synergy Sports Tech (@SynergySST) December 30, 2016

That’s the primary reason Love has been so valuable to the Cavaliers. Even when he’s knocking down post-up attempts and rebounding with aplomb, it’s his ability to produce spacing for Irving’s ball-handling and James’ assaults on the rim that’s most key. For more, let’s turn to SportingNews.com’s Scott Rafferty:

While it would be nice if he was the defender [Chris] Bosh is, having a stretch four who scores over 40 percent of his points from the 3-point line at an elite rate is a tremendous weapon to put alongside two of the NBA’s best penetrators. With Love’s confidence soaring to levels we haven’t seen from him since he was in Minnesota, he’s helping the Cavaliers reach new heights this season.

What are those new heights? 

Well, entering the victory over Boston, Cleveland was outscoring opponents by a sensational 11.7 points per 100 possessions with Love on the floor. And, believe it or not, his on/off discrepancy is actually larger than the one produced by another member of the leading triumvirate: 

Is Love better than Irving? 

Probably not, but it’s debatable. NBA Math’s total points added has the power forward as Cleveland’s No. 2 contributor (63.54 TPA), slightly …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com