Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Oct. 20 vs Cleveland Cavaliers

Major key for Cleveland – Get Kevin Love going

He’s very obviously not the best player on the Cavaliers, but Kevin Love is one of the most important pieces of Cleveland’s latest attempt at reaching the NBA Finals yet again. With no Kyrie Irving and no Isaiah Thomas for at least a while, the Cavs need to love how their star big man plays in this early part of the season.

Aside from a big-time offensive rebound and score that wound up sealing the game against Boston, Love didn’t do all that much in Cleveland’s first game. He ended the night with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He shot the ball just nine times.

Derrick Rose took 14 shots, Jae Crowder took 10 shots, Dwyane Wade took 10 shots and Jeff Green took eight shots on Tuesday night against the Celtics. None of those players are as good as Love is on offense, and at this point in their careers it isn’t all that close.

Cleveland is good enough to win games even with this quiet version of Love around, but for the Cavaliers to reach their peak they need something close to the Kevin Love that averaged 23.5 points and 13.7 rebounds per game across his last four seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

At age 29, Love is far from washed up. If he starts playing like the All-NBA player he can be against Milwaukee, the Bucks are going to have serious problems, especially considering how much the team can struggle on the glass.