CLEVELAND: Kevin Love’s lousy 2017 just got a little worse. Love is out with a left knee injury, and now it’s fair to wonder whether his All-Star appearance next weekend might be in jeopardy.
Love injured his left knee in Saturday’s win over the Denver Nuggets, the team announced Sunday, and he has already been ruled out for Tuesday’s game at the Minnesota Timberwolves. The team said Love had “soreness and effusion” after the game and that he was given an MRI on Sunday at the Cleveland Clinic.
The team did not disclose results of the MRI, but the Cavs said he will receive further treatment and evaluation over the next several days. The final game before the All-Star break is Wednesday at home against the Indiana Pacers. Love’s All-Star nomination is the fourth of his career, but his first since arriving in Cleveland. His status for the game won’t be determined until the severity of the knee injury is known. That will likely be Tuesday.
Love has battled food poisoning, back problems and now a knee injury in the past six weeks. Yet he’s still the only player in the East averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Iman Shumpert has missed three games with a sprained left ankle, and now Love is sidelined. The Cavs have a little more depth to sustain injuries, however, after the signing of free agent Derrick Williams to a 10-day deal.
By asking the Miami Heat for his release last week, Williams was giving up control of his future. He could’ve been claimed by any number of teams with cap space such as the Philadelphia 76ers or the Nuggets. But a funny thing happened along the way: Williams quickly learned he wasn’t in much demand when he cleared waivers.
Maybe it was the roughly $4.6 million cap hit for any team that claimed him or the fact teams began to give up on the former No. 2 overall pick, who has failed to stick with any of his first four teams. Regardless, 29 other teams passing on Williams this week stung him.
“I took that as a little disrespectful,” Williams told the Beacon Journal. “I’ve got a little chip on my shoulder now.”
The Cavs certainly won’t mind if that chip brings out the best in Williams, who again played well during 22 minutes in Saturday’s win over the Nuggets. Williams might be on a 10-day contract, but it’s already clear the Cavs have long-term plans for him that extend well beyond a week-and-a-half.
“We hope that this is a long-term thing,” LeBron James said. “Obviously, we know that he’s on a 10-day contract, but we believe it’s going to be long term. He’s been in some difficult situations. We hope that this is a place that can help him grow and make that next step.”
Williams hopes so, too. He asked to leave Miami because he wanted the chance to play. The Cavs are giving that to him in various roles, including some he’s never played before. Now with Love out, Williams would appear to be in line for big minutes against the team that drafted him six years ago.
Coach Tyronn Lue freely admits he’s just experimenting right now. He used Williams to guard the point guard position in Thursday’s loss at the Oklahoma City Thunder, then went even further and used Williams in sort of a point guard role against the Nuggets.
While the rest of the league is infatuated with smaller lineups, Lue tried a jumbo package to start the second quarter when he sent out Williams and James with Richard Jefferson, Kyle Korver and Channing Frye. Everyone on the floor was at least 6-foot-7. The only problem was they didn’t have a point guard.
James was the de facto point guard, although Lue had Williams bring the ball up on a couple of occasions, too, to keep from making James do too much. In an ongoing effort to improve the defense, this was another avenue. The bigger lineup allowed the Cavs to switch on all pick-and-rolls that didn’t involve Frye.
Not having a point guard hurt, however. That unit committed eight turnovers Saturday in about 11 minutes together on the floor.
“It’s a fantastic lineup,” James said. “We got guys that can rebound, can run and can shoot. So it worked well for us. We got up the floor, got stops, shared the ball, so it’s a pretty good lineup. It’s something that Coach has in his back pocket if he wants to use it again.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.