On the Friday after Christmas, Kevin Love sat the entire fourth quarter in Cleveland’s second win — over the Magic — in their last 11 outings. Last night against Phoenix, he again sat the entire fourth quarter when the Cavs came back before eventually falling to the Suns, 107-100. As Chris Fedor at Northeast Ohio Media Group notes, this is a bad omen for one-third of Cleveland’s troika of superstars.
The Cavs out-scored Orlando 27-14 in that final session on Dec. 26, and while Love finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, his plus/minus was only 2 — the lowest among the starters and the second-lowest on the team.
Last night he had an abysmal minus-20 plus/minus, by far the worst on the team, and Markieff Morris torched him for a game-high 35 points on 15-for-21 shooting.
Love’s defensive woes were compounded by an off night shooting the ball (just 3-of-11 for nine points), but it’s hard to really ascertain his defensive shortcomings without looking at some film.
Let’s look at his defense in the first half when ‘Kieff first got hot and before David Blatt decided to put Shawn Marion on Morris a couple minutes into the second half:
First, Morris takes Love to the basket and hits a little baseline floater as Kevin flails under the iron:
Then, almost the same thing happens on the next possession. He takes Love down onto the right block and basically fakes like he’s going to go up on the other side of the rim and simply puts in a layup over an impotent Love:
The first three-pointer Morris hits comes when Love helps on a side pick-and-roll action then fails to get back in Morris’ mug despite ample time to do so:
Click to keep reading why Love’s defensive woes are such a big problem in Cleveland…
This next three-pointer by Morris on the very next possession shows Love getting tied helping on a pick-and-roll by Isaiah Thomas. Love stops Zeke’s drive on the sideline, but he fails to get back to ‘Kieff, despite — again — plenty of time, when Morris simply pops open beyond the arc. Even J.R. Smith was trying to help over from the weakside. Yeesh:
This last one sees Kevin fail to get back on defense and Morris gets an easy layup — though LeBron tries to stop it from happening — after Goran Dragic finds him for a open in transition:
In all, it’s a pretty bad defensive performance and the primary reason Blatt decided to sit Love for the entire final session; it’s the second time he’s done it, too.
Here’s Fedor on Love’s defensive foibles and the augmented effort he witnessed from the Cavs once Love was on the bench:
With Love sitting, the offense ignited and the defensive intensity, energy and effort all picked up. The Cavs were trailing by 17 points when he went to the bench.
[…]
Still, the play of the defense during Love’s absence shouldn’t be ignored. The Cavs allowed 22 points in the fourth quarter, the second-fewest in a quarter since last Monday in Philadelphia.
Some may quibble with the decision. After all, James Jones of all players was playing meaningful minutes in the fourth quarter and failed to box out burly P.J. Tucker on a critical rebound attempt. But Blatt made the right decision. The team played much better with Love on the bench. And that is a problem.
Love was brought to Cleveland to complete a formidable Big Three, to give the Cavs another option during crunch time and help this team compete for a championship.
Instead, he didn’t play well enough to earn fourth quarter minutes against Orlando earlier and now Phoenix. And it may continue if Love’s defense continues to be a liability.
[…]
To sum it up: In two of Cleveland’s three best showings during the last 11 games, a disappointing stretch of basketball, Love has sat the entire fourth quarter.
Whether it was the right decision or not is irrelevant. Him not being on the court is concerning. The fact that Blatt felt Jones was a better option late or even Mike Miller speaks volumes. Love didn’t deserve minutes in the fourth quarter because of how poorly he was playing.
Crazy as it sounds, the Cavs actually give up fewer points when Love is on the court, but not by much (107 def. rating — off; 106.4 — on). The Cavs are ranked No. 26 in the league in defensive rating, giving up 106.3 points per 100 possessions. That’s better than when Love is on the court, though not by much.
Only the Jazz, Timberwolves, Lakers and Knicks give up more points, and that’s not company you want to keep at all. Even LeBron’s old team, the Heat, are better defensively than the Cavs. Collectively, the Cavaliers need to work their tails off on defense, even if the addition of Timofey Mozgov is supposed to plug up their lack of a rim protector.
LeBron himself needs to get better at it, too.
If the Cavs are serious about competing for a title, and how could they not be after dealing the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft for the Minnesota PF over the summer, then Love’s got to bust his ass on defense every single night. Some of the lapses last night were purely about effort, and not the scheme’s fault. Love should worry less about defensive rebounds and more about getting in his man’s face to alter his shot. Even more than that, Kevin should take every playing going opposite him as a challenge each night. This ain’t Minney. Ask anyone that’s been the top of the mountain, and they’ll tell you it’s a consistent defensive effort that’s how you get into the playoffs and continue to advance.
Maybe Love should watch some film of Chris Bosh during the 2012 and 2013 postseason…
(NEOMG; all stats courtesy of NBA.com)
Will Love’s defense be Cleveland’s undoing in May?
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