Following Tuesday morning’s practice session at Cleveland Clinic Courts, Cavs All-Star Kevin Love spoke about the details his team needs to focus on for the remainder of their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Indiana Pacers. Now that the series tied at two games apiece, Love feels that pace of play is more important than ever.
As most fans of the team know, Cleveland led Indiana by a wide margin at the halftime marks of Games 3 and 4. However, the Pacers managed to storm back down the stretch in each of those games, which actually cost the Cavs Game 3.
“If you get a lead, how do you maintain it?” a reporter asked Love after Wednesday’s practice.
“I think, more than anything, just continue to push our pace,” Love replied. “I thought in the second half we were pretty good defensively. (The Pacers) are just a team that spreads you out. They can play inside and outside. They’re a very good team on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve been preaching about not getting set on offense, in the half court just not keeping it on one side” Love continued. “We need to continue to use motion — even if we do post LeBron (James) up — to continue to have that weak-side action and try to get open looks.”
Love logged 29 minutes in Game 4, scoring five points on 2-10 shooting from the field (0-3 from beyond the arc), 11 rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block.
Needless to say, the Cavs would like to see a bit more in the scoring column from Love — their second option behind James.
“We feel like it’s a best of 3 (series),” Love told Daryl Ruiter of 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland. “And if it comes to it, we have 2 games at home. We’ll look to use that to our advantage.”
Wednesday night’s Game 5 matchup is set to tip inside Quicken Loans Arena at 7:00 p.m. EST with TNT, FOX Sports Ohio and FOX Sports Indiana having live broadcast coverage.