All appears to be well in Cleveland as the Cavaliers aim to go up 2-0 on the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference playoffs. With several players on the roster making their playoff debuts, the Cavaliers showed no sign of nerves as the team beat Boston in a game that was not nearly as close as the score indicated. With all of the regular-season drama that reportedly took place between Kevin Love and LeBron James, all seems to be fine as teams prepare their offers for Love in the offseason.
Love has not exactly had the regular season everyone expected him to have after getting traded from the Minnesota Timberwolves to the Cavaliers. Love finished the regular season as the forgotten member of the team's own Big Three, but came alive in the playoffs with 19 points and 12 rebounds. James is making it clear that he and Love are fine with one another and always have been after the forward reportedly criticized Love for his inability to fit into the team.
"I think Kevin has not had the season that he's accustomed to having the past few years," James said, via Cleveland.com, "but in order for us to win, Kevin Love has to play at a high level, and it's my job to help him get to that point as well."
James echoed that after the game against the Celtics saying, "Its very important that Kev stays involved. For our ultimate goal, Kev has to be in a rhythm or at least touching the ball and feel like he's a part of what we're doing, which he is."
Love's future with the Cavaliers continues to fall into question. Everyone from Marc Stein at ESPN to local medi outlets like the New York Post and Los Angeles Times believes Love is ready to split for either the New York Knicks or Los Angeles Lakers. For his part, Love has maintained that regardless of what happens in the playoffs his intentions are to be with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the future. Cleveland is certainly hoping that is true considering they gave up two former first-round draft picks for the forward, one of which, Andrew Wiggins, is looking like a lock for Rookie of the Year.
Kyrie Irving is also making it clear that everyone is in a good place heading into the playoffs as the main goal is to have a deep run. Team chemistry is a major part of that and Irving is stressing he is not worried about that as an issue.
"As you prepare and get ready for the postseason, you want your best players to be at their best and we set the tone at both ends of the floor," Irving said. "We set it mentally. Physically and mentally we want to be there for everyone and most importantly there for each other, but we have to hold each other accountable. And its just simple as it can be. We got together, we are the Big Three, we have really great players on this team but we set the tone."