NEW YORK — The first month of 2017 saw Kevin Love become so violently ill from food poisoning that he lost 10 pounds in a span of three days, his back spasms became so intrusive he had to change the position he sleeps in at night and trade rumor notifications lit up his phone like a Christmas tree. And Love was able to laugh it all off Saturday.
“My life is so tough,” a sarcastic Love said after putting up 23 points and 16 rebounds in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 111-104 win over the New York Knicks. “Oh, rumor mill! Aw, God.”
As much as Saturday’s game was about LeBron James doing what he seemingly always does at Madison Square Garden by putting up a dominant 32 points and 10 assists as he pushed the Cavs ahead by as many as 27 points en route to their fourth win in five games, it was Love who left a lasting impression.
Late in the second quarter, with Cleveland beginning to pull away, Love caught the ball on the right wing, put it on the floor and dunked all over the Knicks’ 6-foot-11 center Willy Hernangomez.
“Going up and rising like that, that’s a little different,” Love admitted afterward, smiling when asked about the way his teammates reacted to the dunk in stunned delight.
Love’s dunk was the exclamation point for the night, but his 3-pointer off an impossible, whirling, thread-the-needle assist from James with 44.4 seconds left put the Cavs up by eight, finishing things off.
“He’s here for a reason, we know why he’s here,” James said when asked what the night could do for Love moving forward considering how shoddily the New Year has treated him thus far. “We know what he’s capable of.”
With everything seemingly coming to a head in New York — facing off against the guy he has being linked to in those trade scenarios, Carmelo Anthony, and getting back on the court for a full game for the first time in more than a week because of his back — Love’s approach calmed it all down.
“I didn’t really think about it,” said Love who added that neither Cavs coach Tyronn Lue nor general manager David Griffin has addressed any potential trade with him. “Maybe the silver lining was getting through the back injury and just going out there and playing. Had I not done that, I don’t know if it would have been different or not. It is the first game of a four-game road trip and get out there after missing a couple of games and just wanted to feel good.”
He probably won’t feel completely good until after the Feb. 23 trade deadline passes and he is fully assured he’ll be staying with the Cavs.
In the meantime, the best thing he can do for himself is to have more nights like he did against the Knicks.
Check out the team site for more game coverage
Check out the team site for more game coverage
“As a teammate, I don’t feel sorry for him,” Channing Frye told ESPN. “Who cares about rumors? We love him. We know what he does for this team. He’s a Banana Republic model. … Dude, he’s fine. He’s absolutely fine. He knows that we have his back.
“Just being out there and hooping is therapeutic, regardless of whether it’s a good game or bad game, you’re just looking at it as ‘I’m out here with my brothers, we’re competing at the highest level.’ …
“We’re a very good team with him. You know, we’re a very good team with him. So, let’s just keep it going.”
Love, 28, readily admits that he wasn’t always equipped to deal with the pressure that the Cavs circus involves, but he has “learned a lot in the past three years” since coming to Cleveland.
“It’s no longer foreign to him,” James Jones, perhaps Love’s closest teammate, told ESPN. “He understands it. It’s kind of hard to process when you’re a younger player — your name in trades and rumors — but after you get used to it, you realize it’s really a sign of value. If you don’t have value, no one is calling.”
The Cavs are calling for Love to just keep it up. Winning is the best silencer. When James, Love and Kyrie Irving (who missed Saturday’s game because of a thigh contusion but is expected to play Monday in Washington) are all healthy, Cleveland has never lost a playoff series.
The collective basketball world can have a short memory, though.
“That’s who Kevin Love is,” Lue said. “He’s capable of playing this way every single night. It’s not surprising to me.”
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