The Cleveland Cavaliers, down 2-0 against the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, need all hands on deck to stop the bleeding. They shot 37 percent when they set the 3-point mark last season. He had 13 points in the third quarter after managing just two in the first half.
Advertisement
Coach Tyronn Lue has a few options if Love can’t play.
The Cavs have averaged just 83 points per game in their two Finals losses, and only three teams in National Basketball Association history – the 1966 Boston Celtics, the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 2006 Miami Heat – have come back from 2-0 deficits to win the title. RJ, who is 35 mind you, played in 26 minutes off the bench during Cleveland’s blowout loss in Game 2. The Cavs trail the series 2-0, and no team in National Basketball Association history has successfully overcome a 3-0 series deficit. And losing Game 3’s against Houston, Portland and Oklahoma City earlier in these playoffs obviously didn’t become knockout blows, either.
Neither sequence cost Golden State the game – an inability to guard Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith was far bigger than any botched possession – but neither was also the sort of play one would expect from the first unanimously selected MVP, either.
He’s been a major contributor to Cleveland’s run this postseason, averaging 16.5 points and a team-leading 9.4 rebounds in 16 games. Kerr and Rooks were college teammates at Arizona.
“It’s the NBA”, Kerr said. “I’m devastated for his family, especially his kids”. I just think we haven’t played us. We’re down 0-2, and we can’t afford to look and say, “Wow, Kev’s not playing”. Vince Carter was named the Twyman-Stokes teammate of the year Wednesday as voted on by National Basketball Association players.
Advertisement
“K-Lo has worked hard all year and for that to happen, we all checked on him after the game and I hope he’s alright”, Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson said. The one exception there was Seattle, which pushed Michael Jordan and Chicago to six games in 1996 before succumbing.
