Kevin Love Sat The Fourth, But He Set A Great Screen For Kyrie In OT!

Make sure to play the volume in the above Vine — by the venerable CJ Fogler − because it’s pretty much how we imagined Kevin Love‘s interior monologue during the Kyrie Irving show last night.

Love only scored eight points in the overtime Cavs win on a 2-for-10 shooting night in over 32 minutes of action. His irrelevance can be attributed to a sore back; although, a lot of Twitter blamed it on him being Kevin Love.*

Some people used his absence from the sideline in overtime as an excuse to perpetuate more of the Love’s unhappy trope that’s caught on this season — when he’s been relegated to a tertiary role on Cleveland’s offense after acting as The Man in Minnesota for some non-playoff teams the last few years.

https://twitter.com/netw3rk/status/576239720352649216

He was just banged up and let his talented teammates take over. So why was he missing when Blatt wanted to sub him in during overtime?

He was actually riding the bike in the tunnel to keep his back from locking up sitting on those tiny sideline chairs (it’s why Steve Nash would always lie down on some towels).

https://twitter.com/bansky/status/576250467472121856

He was staying warm on the bike RT @SportsVentz Any word from Love as to why he was pulled from the tunnel to check in the game in OT?!

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 13, 2015

Cavs got 57 from Kyrie and 31 from LeBron. Only 8 from Kevin Love, whose back started acting up. But when those 3 play, Cavs aren't losing.

— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) March 13, 2015

After checking in during the extra session, Love had an assist and one of his five rebounds on the night. His back-screen on Kawhi to free Kyrie, was one of the more underappreciated plays down the home stretch. Clearly it’s hard to credit Love’s screen when Kyrie is crossing up Diaw and then dropping another triplet in his eye.