The relationship between Kevin Love and his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates may be nearing a breaking point, and Love tried to address some of the negative energy surrounding the team when he spoke with reporters on Tuesday.
A report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski claimed the Cavs held an “emotional meeting” on Monday where players questioned the legitimacy of the illness that kept Love out of most of the team’s blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder over the weekend. On Tuesday, Love said he felt the meeting was about more than just him and that he would have preferred if the details of it remained in-house.
Kevin Love on "meeting": "I felt like we should keep it on the court or in the locker room, but obviously it didn’t stay there."#Cavs
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) January 23, 2018
Love: "Did I feel like a target? I think everybody, most people, were a target. We’re trying to figure this thing out. People hold themselves to a very high standard on this team and we’re a team that can compete at the highest level."#Cavs
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) January 23, 2018
Love on if meeting helped clear air: "That’s what we hope. Even if it’s directed at me or directed at anybody else, you just hope that it helps and that we can get better from it. … Maybe yesterday was a really good thing for us, you never know."#Cavs
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) January 23, 2018
Love was reportedly the first player off the Cavs’ team bus on Tuesday and walked onto the court alone. Going forward, he said his only goal is helping Cleveland win games.
More Love: "I’m going to keep my mouth shut, do right by the organization, by the fans and try to help this team win.”#Cavs
— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) January 23, 2018
LeBron James was also asked about the meeting, but he simply said he does not want to talk about it.
Love’s usage rate has been down since Isaiah Thomas returned, and he has been terrible in the month of January. After he averaged 22.2 points, 10.1 rebounds and 29.7 minutes per game in December, his numbers are down to 12.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and 23.9 minutes this month.
It seemed like Love was being used as a scapegoat for some of Cleveland’s early struggles when LeBron first returned, but a lot of that went away after the Cavs won the title. Now that they have lost nine of their last 12 games, Love seems to be taking the hit again. Meanwhile, LeBron has no problem congratulating himself on personal accomplishments as rumors of dysfunction swirl.
