Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 Takeaways From Game 7 vs. Warriors

4. Kevin Love Rises To The Occasion After Recent Struggles

Playing in his first Finals, Love started the series with a solid effort in Game 1, scoring 17 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. From that point on, though, Love struggled to say the least.

Not only was he forced to miss Game 3 due to a concussion — a game that the Cavaliers won by 30 points — Love scored a total of just 25 points over his next four games.

Despite the All-Star forward being a shell of his former self, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue expected Love to have an impact in Game 7.

From Cleveland.com:

"He’s going to have a big game for us tomorrow, I believe,” Tyronn Lue said. “It’s all about matchups. It’s all about staying on the floor, being out of foul trouble, and I have no problem with Kevin. He’s going to be fine.”"

From an offensive perspective, Love didn’t have a huge game, as he scored nine points on 3-of-9 shooting from the field. However, he was a force on the glass, gobbling up 14 rebounds (four offensive) and he finished with a plus-19, the highest rating of any player on both teams.

And for those of us who thought that Love wasn’t capable of having an impact with everything on the line, check out his defense on Stephen Curry in this late-game sequence, as he forced the two-time MVP into taking a highly-contested shot.

Will Love ever be considered anything more than an “average” defender at best? Probably not.

But he managed to stay with the league’s most dangerous player when his team needed it the most.

Next: No. 3