The Cavs will be without Kevin Love in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, and while it could be frustrating for Cleveland fans not to see one of their Big Three in action, it’s even more frustrating for Love, who has been lobbying team officials to play since the end of Game 2.
Kevin Love is "really frustrated" by the Cavs' insistence that he sits out tonight's Game 3, according to one source close to the situation.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 8, 2016
Ultimately it is up to the team physician, who has the final say under the league’s concussion protocol, and the Cavs must not have felt comfortable putting Love out there. For as tough as it is for a guy like Love to sit, erring on the side of caution is the right play, even if teams are a bit shaky and inconsistent on enforcing and sticking to the protocol.
This opens the door up to all sorts of hot takes — the likes of which NBA Twitter has never seen before — if the Cavaliers were to pull out an impressive and necessary win in Game 3. Love’s defense has been much maligned, especially against the Warriors, and whenever he’s struggled or been hurt in Cleveland, talk of trading the big man stirs up again. With the Cavs already down 2-0 in this series, it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see general manager David Griffin shake the roster up, and one of those moves could come in the form of a Love trade.
And that’s probably weighing heavily on Love, who came to Cleveland wanting to have a chance to succeed in the postseason and play with LeBron James. He’s a competitive guy who hears the chatter, and he likely wanted to play in front of the home crowd and help get this to a 2-1 deficit. But health matters, and head injuries need to be taken as seriously in the NBA as they are in other sports. If the Cavs saw anything that indicated Love was anything other than okay, sitting him was the right move. Even if all our heads will hurt having to read and listen to talk about whether Love is a good fit in Cleveland.
