When Kevin Love came back from his hand injury most expected that the Cleveland Cavaliers would be a better team all around, and that has been the case as the Cavaliers look like a whole new team.
Most knew that Love would give the team a boost scoring and would really help space the floor, but one place that people forget that Love is so good is on the boards, and the Cavaliers have seen a huge jump in their rebounding since his return.
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Since Love has come back the Cavaliers are a plus-38 on the boards and those are so important with the pace that the Cavaliers like to run. They want to rebound and get the ball out in transition and run.
The Cavaliers are also 4-0 and have scored at least 120 points in each of the four games. The defense really hasn’t improved but that isn’t much of a surprise as Love has never considered a great defender.
For the Cavaliers to get where they want to this postseason it really isn’t going to come down to the defensive end as they already know that isn’t a strength of this team.
It’s going to come down to scoring, effort, rebounding especially offensive rebounding. For Love on the season, he has played in 51 games averaging 18 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists. He is shooting 46.3 percent from the field and 40.9 percent from the deep.
His three-point shooting is up four percent this year over his career average and he keeps needing to bang it in from deep.
Without the Cavaliers have a big three anymore that makes Love that much more important to LeBron James and the team as they try to bring home another championship to the land.