Kevin Love Sucking in This Area Since This Happened
The feel-good story over the last decade or so for the Cleveland Cavaliers has been power forward Kevin Love. If we remember, he was a baller with the Minnesota Timberwolves before the Cavs traded for him in 2014. Of course, he helped the team win a championship in 2016 with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
What’s most interesting about Love? No, not love itself; that is way too complicated for this article. The player Kevin Love is that he is the last of the Cavs’ Big Three that won said championship all those years ago.
Irving currently plays in Brooklyn.
LeBron is on the Lakers still chugging along at the age of 38.
Unfortunately for Love is the fact that recently his three-point shot has been way off. That has always been one of his specialties, especially as a big man. What has been targeted as the problem is the fact that Love had a thumb injury, something that occurred in late November, as the main reason why his three-point shot has gone awry.
The thumb hasn’t been a bad enough injury where he’s needed to sit out or anything of that nature, but it has been something that clearly is causing some problems with the shot.
Check out these statistics via Chris Fedor CLE Dot Com:
“Prior to his painful thumb injury — which Love told cleveland.com was supposed to take about six weeks to heal or just feel normal again, causing a slight alteration of his mechanics — Love was 51 of 120 (42.5%) from the field and 36 of 88 (40.9%) from 3-point range. Those shooting numbers were right in line with last season, when he became Sixth Man of the Year runner-up. He made at least one triple in 13 of the first 15 games and reached double figures six times.
But since the injury, Love is shooting just 53 of 149 (35.5%) from the field and 28 of 95 (29.4%) from beyond the arc. He enters Wednesday’s matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies having hit just 3 of his last 27 long-range attempts. He has five 0-fers during the miserable seven-game stretch.”
—
Yikes.
This type of shooting can’t continue or Love will not carry the same effectiveness that he has always had with the Cavs. The team is going to have to find a way to make sure that thumb is completely cured in order to get Love back to shooting at the top rate he always has over the years.
Love is a huge asset off the bench and many have regarded him as a potential sixth-man of the year. Let’s get back to that in the coming games and hope for a completely healed thumb that causes no problems throughout the rest of this season.
About Author
