Golden State has won the first two games of the NBA Finals, both of those wins coming by double figures and with a few dominant stretches of basketball in there. The Cavaliers can assign a guy to stick with Green, but that will leave another Warriors role player open – and if you think those guys can’t hurt the Cavs may I remind you of Shaun Livingston’s 20 in Game 1. Golden State was down 3 games to 1 to Oklahoma City.
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The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without forward Kevin Love for Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. Love participated in a portion of the Cavaliers’ morning shootaround Wednesday, but will not be cleared from the league’s concussion protocol in time to play.
“It wasn’t as important as it might have seemed over the course of the game”, Jefferson said.
Wednesday night will give the Warriors bench another opportunity to continue their excellent play as well as attempt to give the team a decisive 3-0 series lead.
Though Love has drawn a great deal of criticism for his so-so defense and lack of offensive firepower versus Golden State, his absence in Game 3 will prove to be immensely costly for Cleveland. The 1969 Boston Celtics, 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and 2006 Miami Heat all lost the first two games of the finals on the road before winning the title – the Celtics doing so in seven games, the Blazers and Heat getting it done in six.
Love played much of the second quarter after taking the blow and showed no ill effects at half-time, Lue said.
Love is averaging 16.5 points and a team-leading 9.4 rebounds in 16 postseason games.
That’s what the Warriors do against everyone, not just the Cavs. He missed most of last year’s playoff run to the finals with a separated shoulder. “At 6’7”, Guard Shaun Livingston (whom the Cavs let walk in 2013 in pursuing offense-only former Warrior guard Jarret Jack) was the mole who towered over the Cavs’ smaller guards, and mocked them as they tried to reach up and club his jump shot with their mallets. “It doesn’t matter what the scores are, doesn’t matter if you win by 25 or lose by 25, it’s one game in the series”. Among the candidates are forward Channing Frye, who played only 11 minutes in the series so far; Richard Jefferson, who practiced with the starters; and center Timofey Mozgov.
A mixed bag of comments about Love are coming into social media, as seen below.
“Honestly the #Cavs are screwed without Kevin Love”.
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Will it be enough for the Cavs to overcome the adversity they’re facing in the Finals? “Because the takes are going to be deathly hot”. Do we really need to rehash the folly of the “if the Cavaliers just had a healthy Love and Irving everything would be different” argument?
