Kevin Love went down with a dislocated shoulder in Sunday's game 4 against the Boston Celtics. Kevin Love thought Kelly Olynyk dislocated his arm on purpose by locking their arms together and thinks Olynyk pulled on his shoulder to dislocate it. Love thought it wasn't a basketball play at all. I'm guessing the NBA thought the same thing since they suspended Kelly Olynyk for 1 game for next season. I didn't see anything wrong with the play I just saw two players going for a rebound and neither of them wanted to give each other any advantage to get the rebound so they held each other. The same type of play happened Monday night between Jeff Green and Nicolas Batum they both were arm locked going for a rebound only difference is nobody got a dislocated shoulder Kevin Love just was unlucky to get injured.
With the Cavs waiting for their opponent for the Eastern Conference Finals either between the Chicago Bulls or Milwaukee Bucks losing Kevin Love isn't good. Both the Bucks and the Bulls have a good big man play. The loss of Kevin Love will expose the limited depth the Cavaliers have at the big man position. Timofey Mozgov, Tristan Thompson, Brendan Haywood, and Kendrick Perkins must step of if the Cavs want to advance to the conference finals. Only two big men that has decent offense skills are Mozgov and Thompson and I don't think neither one of them will be handle to score that much on Pau Gasol, Joakim Noah, or Taj Gibson. Or John Henson, Ersan Ilyasova, and Miles Plumlee if they end up playing the Bucks.
So the Cavs basically have a lot of work ahead of them if they wish to bring a NBA Championship to Cleveland. But losing J.R. Smith for two games in the next round will hurt them. J.R. was suspended two games for the next round for hitting Jae Crowder in the face in Sunday's game 4 against the Boston Celtics. All the pressure now lies on Kyrie Irving and LeBron James if they play the way they been playing in the first round of the playoffs the Cavs should at least advance to the conference finals no matter who they play in the semifinals. Only time will tell how significant the loss of Kevin Love will be.
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