Kevin Love's return to the Cleveland Cavaliers line up clearly shows what the team missed in last season's NBA finals loss.
The power forward is doing great so far in this early season and that could either be because of 1) his desire to contribute after missing a lot of games or 2) prep talk he received from teammate and captain Lebron James.
News surfaced this past week that King James was frustrated with Kevin Love's fitness entering the 2014-2015 season. Ohio.com reported the four-time NBA MVP did not like Love's preparedness for his new team.
"Yet from almost the moment Love arrived, the relationship seemed to sour," Ohio.com wrote on November 6.
"James went to great lengths to get him here, and now team officials concede James didn't treat him very well once he arrived. [...] In truth, James was frustrated in part because Love showed up out of shape. He didn't work out much at all the summer he was traded here and he wasn't the player James was expecting. His legs bothered him all season. His back was hurting. All of the parts were connected and none of them were firing properly."
James wants more from Kevin Love and he made it known to the latter in halftime break of Sunday's game versus Indiana Pacers.
"LeBron talked to me at halftime, just got me going," Love said after their victory. "That's all it was. I mentioned to him I kind of wanted to free flow and get myself near the basket. That's what I did. Got myself into a good rhythm rebounding the ball. I credit my teammates for that. It started with him and trickled down to everybody else." [...] James said he thought Love's problem was "his energy was really low offensively."
Love scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half and while he also grabbed more than 20 rebounds.
Kevin Love returned to Cleveland Cavaliers line up at the start of the season after getting injured in the playoffs against Boston Celtics. He is next to James in points per game with 17 and is team's leader in rebounds per game with 12.
