Love helps Heat to second round as ex-team ousted. And Giannis second-guesses strategy
The Cleveland Cavaliers, by early February, essentially determined they had no role of any significance for five-time All Star and champion Kevin Love, removed him from the rotation and triggered his buyout request, which led to his signing with the Heat.
So it seemed a cruel coincidence for the Cavs that on a night Cleveland was eliminated from the playoffs and got another middling performance from its bench, Love was crafting his most impactful game of the postseason - a 15-point, 12-rebound, one block gem in 36 minutes in the Heat’s close-out 128-126 Game 5 overtime win in Milwaukee.
The Cavs got 19 points and three rebounds from their entire bench on Wednesday. Love would have been a key cog on that bench if Cleveland coach JB Bickerstaff hadn’t removed him from the rotation.
But there would be no gloating from the classy Love in the aftermath of the Heat advancing to the second round and the Cavs exiting the playoffs after one round.
Instead, there was an appreciation for the Heat organization and his experience since joining the team Feb. 20.
“Naturally, after spending 8 1 /2 years in a place, pretty much going to the top of the mountain, the bottom of the mountain, rebuilding,” Love said. “And then eventually leaving and coming to a place that was up and down for me, even going into the last five or six games. I felt like I somewhat found myself and felt I could see where I could find my shots and rebound the basketball and really help these guys because it was up and down throughout.”
Love started his first 17 games as a Heat player, came off the bench in his next eight appearances (including the first two games of this series) and then rejoined the starting lineup before Game 3 to help the Heat compensate for its height deficit against Milwaukee’s giant front line.
He averaged 9.8 points and 7.4 rebounds in 21 minutes per game against the Bucks, with seven assists and one turnover in 109 minutes. He shot 13 for 30 on threes, including 5 for 11 in Wednesday’s close-out win before fouling out late in regulation.
“I wanted to come, be a part of winning, wanted to play a part in this and just help make these guys’ lives easier,” Love said. “I felt in a lot of cases I was able to do that.
“It’s definitely fun for me. Not going there asking for 15, 20 shots and trying to get 20, 25 points every night. I’m trying to do those little things. First thing I said when I got here is I’m all about winning.”
After Wednesday’s game, Erik Spoelstra took a moment to acknowledge the value of “the championship experience he and Kyle [Lowry] bring. They stabilize our units. Kevin was a positional need, as we knew the size, the shooting, the rebounding, the guy to complement both Bam and Jimmy. And he’s been in a lot of these big moments; you need that.”
What Love, well, loves about this team is “we’re resilient. We have guys that do a lot of stuff that may or may not show up in the stat sheet but we’re all about winning. We all bring the ego that got us here but for the betterment of the team.
“We understand with Tyler [Herro] out, it’s going to be Jimmy [Butler], it’s going to be Bam [Adebayo] and all of us have to figure out where we are going to contribute.”
GIANNIS QUESTIONS APPROACH
Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who shot 1 for 9 in the fourth quarter on Wednesday, said the team didn’t make enough adjustments to defend Butler, who averaged 37.2 points on 59.7 percent shooting in the series.
“Maybe we could have double teamed him to make [Butler] pass,” he said. “Maybe we could have switched the matchup for two, three minutes to give Jrue [Holiday] a break. I don’t think as a team we made the right—or we didn’t make as many adjustments as we could against them.”
The 6-5 Holiday, a two-time member of the All Defensive team, couldn’t contain the 6-7 Butler, who shot 26 of 46 (56.5 percent) when defended by Holiday.
Antetokounmpo, 6-11, guarded Butler for shorter stretches, and Butler shot 6 for 7 against him.
Asked if he wanted to guard Butler more in this series, Antetokounmpo said: “Yes. Out of respect, you gotta let the coach make that adjustment. We have our best defender on him. There are conversations with Jrue. Whenever he gets tired, I can take him. He’s so competitive. He plays so hard. He wants to take the challenge. But at the end of the day, I wish I could guard him more.”
Antekounmpo - who had had 38 points and 20 rebounds on Wednesday but shot just 10 for 23 on free throws - disputed a reporter’s suggestion that this season was a failure, even though it marked just the sixth time that a No. 1 seed has been ousted by an eighth seed.
“They were playing to beat us and we were playing to win a championship,” he said. “We were a little bit ahead of ourselves, to be honest. We just did not score...We gave them momentum and confidence to come back into the game. They kicked our butts.”
THIS AND THAT
The status of Knicks forward Julius Randle for Sunday’s Game 1 of the Heat-Knicks series is in question after he left New York’s game on Wednesday with a sprained left ankle, an injury that forced him to miss five games late in the season.
Randle, who limped off the floor, averaged 25.1 points and 10.0 rebounds this season.
The Heat and Knicks will play on Sunday (1 p.m., ABC) and Tuesday (time TBA) in New York, then have a break before the series shifts to Miami for Game 3 on May 6 and Game 4 on May 8.
If needed, Game 5 would be on May 10 in New York, Game 6 on May 12 in Miami and Game 7 on May 15 in New York.
▪ Per Elias, Heat is 7-1 when Butler scores 40 or more points in the playoffs, a better win percentage than both Michael Jordan (26-12) and LeBron James (18-10) when they’ve done the same.
Dwyane Wade (7-0) and Larry Bird (5-0) are the only players to go undefeated when scoring 40-plus in the playoffs (minimum five games).
▪ Per Justin Kubatko, Jordan (112, 105, 99), Jerry West (101) and Elgin Baylor (99) are the only players to score more points than Butler in two consecutive playoff games. Butler scored 98 in Games 4 and 5.
▪ The Bucks, who squandered 13 and 16 point fourth quarter leads in the past two games, had been 51-3 when leading after three quarters this season. Miami outscored Milwaukee 71-43 in the fourth quarters of Games 4 and 5.
This story was originally published April 27, 2023 at 11:22 AM.
