NBA scores 2017: LeBron James can keep Cavaliers functional without Kevin Love

Love will be out for a little while with an injury, though he is expected back soon.

by Tim Cato

Feb 16, 2017, 2:00 PM UTC

NBA: Indiana Pacers at Cleveland Cavaliers

Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

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The cameras are always on LeBron James. After living it for more than a decade, James understands it. He knows that when he says things like this, it may draw even more scrutiny than he normally has, even if it shouldn’t.

“As long as I’m in the lineup, we’ve got a chance,” James told Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. “We good. Kev is out for an extended period of time. J.R. (Smith) has been out, but I’m in the lineup. I’ll be suiting up. We’ve got a chance against anybody. I ain’t worried.”

Kev is Kevin Love, of course, and Love is expected to miss six weeks with a minor knee procedure. Both Love and J.R. Smith are supposed to return before the playoffs, with Smith recovering from thumb surgery, and Cleveland is confident it can beat anyone with its full team. But James, of course, sees it differently.

After all, it was James who nearly won a Finals MVP in 2015 despite his team losing, and it was James who willed his team back from a 3-1 deficit with consecutive 41-point games and a Game 7 triple-double. With Love and Smith out, the Cavaliers have added some players around the edges — namely Kyle Korver as a Mike Dunleavy improvement, and more recently Derrick Williams who provides shooting skills around the rim the team doesn’t really have. But the onus for all this still falls on James — not because he gave that quote above, but certainly influenced because of it.

On Wednesday in a 113-104 blowout against Indiana that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score, James led with a game-high 31 points on 17 shot attempts. He hit four threes and had five rebounds along with four assists. That should dissipate a blood-hungry mob for now.

James only had to play 33 minutes to do it, which is a nice reprieve. Right now, James still leads the league in minutes per game, which seems like an absurd thing for a 32-year-old who has been to six straight NBA Finals. James knows this; you don’t always get him at 100 percent during the season anymore, knowing when to rev it up and when to calm it back down.

The All-Star break is fortuitous for Cleveland and for Love, whose potential six weeks timetable gets a free one-week head start on coming back. In theory, the Cavaliers can handle this because Channing Frye, the bench player elevated into the starting lineup, shares a lot of similar traits. Still, Cleveland will need to gang rebound every missed shot and make sure they aren’t being to be taken advantage of.

Frye went just 1-of-8 from the field on Wednesday. That might have been James’ fault if the team had lost to a few of his worst critics, or a talking point on the hot take-iest television shows. But Frye will bounce back, and James made sure his one game wouldn’t affect anything.

That’s what James does. As long as he’s in the lineup, you know the Cavaliers have a chance.

Housekeeping for All-Star weekend

First off, Carmelo Anthony was named as the replacement for an injured Kevin Love on Wednesday. Anthony is scoring about as well as usual this season, but there is a strong case that Bradley Beal is having a better year for the surging Wizards. Ah, well — I’m sure the league was always going to go with the bigger name.

In other news, here is Derrick Jones Jr.’s first NBA dunk of his career.

Jones will be in the Dunk Contest on Saturday, and as you can see, he can dunk real good. He had only taken three shots total with Phoenix coming into this game.

There’s two games on Thursday and then All-Star weekend schedule starts on Friday. See you there!