Cavs forward Kevin Love was held out of Thursday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons due to a bout of foot soreness. If he is unable to play in Saturday night’s match-up against the Indiana Pacers, Sam Dekker could be called on to play at power forward, according to a report from Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
Vardon reports that Dekker, who signed with the Cavs prior to the start of this season, ran with the first team during Saturday morning’s practice session.
In his four appearances with the Cavs thus far, Dekker has posted averages of 5.0 points on 58.3 percent shooting from the field (40.0 percent from beyond the arc) and 3.3 rebounds in 10.8 minutes per outing.
As Vardon notes in his report, Channing Frye started for Love in Thursday’s game, scoring five points and four rebounds in 20 minutes of action. Larry Nance Jr. also saw some playing time at the 4 in Love’s absence, racking up 11 points, six rebounds, five assists, and three steals in 28 minutes.
With the loss on Thursday night, the Cavs have fallen to 0-5 for the first time since 2003-04, which was LeBron James’ rookie season.
Kyle Korver led the Cavs in scoring against the Pistons with 21 points. And though his team was defeated, 110-103, the sharpshooter says he saw some improvement.
“As competitors we want to win, but I thought there was some good out there tonight,” Korver told ESPN. “I thought we were playing with more energy, we passed the ball earlier in the shot clock, kept things going in motion, scrapped on defense, but it’s hard to win in the NBA.”
The Cavs will be back in action on Saturday night, when they’ll welcome the Indiana Pacers to Quicken Loans Arena. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. with FOX Sports Ohio having live broadcast coverage.