The Cavaliers can keep winning without Kevin Love
Cleveland hasn’t missed Kevin Love as much as expected in the NBA Playoffs. Here’s why they’re surviving and why they can still compete with the Warriors.
Losing Kevin Love to a shoulder injury was supposed to end any chance of an NBA championship for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Instead, they won a hard-fought series over the Chicago Bulls and swept through the Atlanta Hawks to win the Eastern Conference. Now, they're four wins away from the NBA title.
The Cavaliers, it turns out, are just fine without Love.
It's not just because of LeBron James, either. Tristan Thompson and the bench have stepped up in big ways for Cleveland. Cleveland is rebounding extremely well and playing much better defense. Because of this, they have a shot at taking down the Golden State Warriors.
Though to be honest, having James helps, too.
Tristan Thompson has emerged, and so has the Cavaliers’ rebounding
In the four-game sweep of the Boston Celtics when Love was available, Tristan Thompson averaged seven points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes per game. Since Love's departure, Thompson's minutes and production have swelled. In the 10 games against the Bulls and Hawks, Thompson averaged over 10 points, 11 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 38 minutes per game. He's been a monster on the offensive glass, averaging four offensive rebounds per game in the playoffs.
He’s made a big difference for the Cavaliers’ team rebounding, too. In the regular season, the Cavaliers grabbed 51.1 percent of the rebounds available. In the playoffs, they’ve grabbed 53.8 percent of the available rebounds, which is tops in the league in the postseason.
It will be important for Thompson to continue to attack the glass against the Warriors, who have grabbed 52.3 percent of available rebounds throughout the playoffs. Thompson's presence could cause trouble for a lineup featuring Draymond Green at center. Can Green keep Thompson from grabbing offensive rebounds?
The Cavaliers’ defense is better
In the regular season, the Cavaliers scored 107.1 points per 100 possessions and surrendered 104.1. In the last two playoff series, those numbers have trended up. Cleveland has maintained a 107.1 offensive mark, but has improved to 99.1 points allowed per 100 possessions defensively. The sample size is small, but the improvement is obvious.
The offense is similar, thanks to the play of James and the shooting of J.R. Smith, among other things, but the defensive play has been phenomenal. The Cavaliers shut down the Atlanta Hawks, who, despite missing a few injured players, had sprinted through the regular season to 60 wins and had the sixth-best offense in the league. In that four-game sweep, the Cavaliers allowed just 97.9 points per 100 possessions. The Hawks' offensive rating in the regular season was 106.2.
Thompson and Timofey Mozgov, who weren't often paired when Love was available, are an imposing defensive force down low. When Mozgov is on the court, the Cavaliers are allowing just 92.9 points per 100 possessions in the playoffs. Say what you will about Matthew Dellavedova, but his intensity on the defensive end has also given the Cavaliers a boost: their defensive rating is 95 when he's on the court.
It helps to have the best player in the NBA
The play of the bench and the emergence of Thompson have been huge bumps for Cleveland, but James has been spectacular, averaging 27.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game in the playoffs. As obvious as it is, things would have gotten uglier than imaginable without James, who has taken on the burden of responsibility due to the Cavaliers’ injuries.
Not only did the Cavaliers lose Love, but Kyrie Irving has been hobbled, too. Irving missed two games of the conference finals and played only 27 and 22 minutes in Games 1 and 4, respectively. He wasn't fully healthy against the Bulls, either, playing just 12 minutes in the final game of the series. James had to put up video game statistics without his sharp-shooting sidekick, including a preposterous 37 points, 18 rebounds and 13 assists in Game 3 against the Hawks. Plus, he's hit timely shots, like the Game 4 winner over the Bulls that evened the series at the time.
James is averaging more than 40 minutes per game in the playoffs because the Cavaliers need him. If the Cavaliers are going to win the NBA title, it'll be because the Warriors have no answer for James. Thompson will have an opportunity to crash the offensive glass against Green and Andrew Bogut, and the shooting of Irving and Smith will be vital, but James is going to have to do it all as usual.
Why they can beat the Warriors without Love
In the postseason, the Warriors struggled the most against the grit and grind play of the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies were able to steal two games from Golden State -- including one in Oakland -- because they had two big men in Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol who clogged the lane and crashed the boards to go along with a defensive stopper in Tony Allen. Without Love, the Cavaliers can employ a similar roster. They have Thompson and Mozgov to bruise down low and James to play stopper at any position.
The Cavaliers learned to play in a variety of ways because of Love’s injury -- they can run-and-gun, they can grind it out, they can let James take over.
Grinding it out and letting James take over is going to be the formula for beating the Warriors. A lineup with Thompson -- not Love -- and James has a chance to lead the Cavaliers to the title.
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