The Point Four-ward: Love-less and More

[Note: if you haven’t checked out David Wood and Evil Genius going at each other in a classic Cavs: The Duel, from earlier today, go here first.]

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) The pop Cavs fans heard when Kelly Olynyk “got tied up” with Kevin Love wasn’t Love’s shoulder separating from its socket — the acute anterior inferior glenohumeral dislocation with the corresponding ligament/labrum tearing and humeral head bone bruising. It was almost as if Love’s shoulder was mic’d up at that moment of “incidental contact” with Olynyk, as a crushing, sickening popping sound echoed throughout all of Cavs fandom. It was that moment that a wheel popped off of what had, until this point, been a very fun ride on the Cavs bandwagon.

Starting with their second round series against either the Chicago Bulls or the Milwaukee Bucks, winning won’t come so easy for this Cavs team. They’re not exactly John McClain counting his final two bullets before his final showdown with Hans Gruber in the closing minutes of Die Hard but, with their arsenal noticeably depleted, this Cavaliers team will face much stiffer odds in every series they survive from here on out. The angst this has caused throughout the team’s fan base is to be expected, but it doesn’t mean that this team is doomed. It doesn’t mean that this season was a waste. And it doesn’t necessarily make following the Cavs any less enjoyable for the remainder of their Love-less run.

So, without further ado… It’s time to dust off your underdog, us-against-the-world mentality, Cleveland fans. I know you still got it!

2.) After the dark cloud that hung over Sunday’s Game 4 win over the Celtics had broken, if only slightly, I started to joke to friends: “See, this is why you stock your bench with washed up veterans who, at least, have championship experience.” ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said essentially the same thing as the guest on Tuesday’s B.S. Report with Bill Simmons. Looking down your bench and seeing Mike Miller, James Jones and Shawn Marion, Windhorst noted, is a lot different than looking down at Joe Harris and Matthew Dellavedova and expecting those guys to make a difference in a big moment of a playoff series.

While anyone who has watched even a handful of Cavs games this year would agree that Miller, Jones and Marion have seen their best playing days go by, it wouldn’t surprise anyone to see one (or more) of those three toss out a throw back performance (or two) as they are all likely to be pressed into a larger role in the second round and beyond.

Jones broke into the Cavs regular rotation following the All-Star Game. In the season’s unofficial second half, Jones played in 26 games, averaging 5.5 points on 40% shooting (nearly identical overall and from three) in 14 minutes per game. He was able to stretch the floor as the team’s backup four-man, but did little to show he could compensate for Love’s work on the boards, averaging just 1.1 rebounds per game.

Because the Cavs will be able to employ similar spacing on the offensive end with Jones as they did with Love, I expect the 6-8 forward to start in Love’s place, even against the taller front lines of Chicago or Milwaukee. Jones’s effectiveness was limited in the Celtics series (2.5 points on 23.1% shooting), but he’s played well enough to earn head coach David Blatt’s confidence and everyone knows he has the confidence of the player who matters most: LeBron James.

Jones will likely be asked to rebound more filling in for Love. How much he’ll be able to do that remains to be seen.

3.) It wasn’t Love’s injury as much as J.R. Smith’s two-game suspension for smacking Jae Crowder that signaled Miller’s likely return to the rotation. Miller has only played in 14 games since the All-Star Break and he didn’t set foot on the court in any of the four games against the Celtics. Still, Miller’s history has shown him as more than capable of rising from the dead in key moments of a playoff series.

Last season, Miller played in all 82 regular season games for the Memphis Grizzlies, averaging 7.1 points per game and shooting 46% from three point range. In the Grizzlies first round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder last year, Miller was largely held in check, save for a Game 5 performance that saw him shoot 5-8 from three on the way to 21 points in a one point Grizzlies win.

The previous year, Miller shot 65% from deep against the Spurs as he helped the Miami Heat win a second straight title.

The problem with Miller, though, is that for his career as a Cavalier, he’s averaging just 2.1 points on 31.7% shooting from distance (31.5% overall) and barely saw any time during the time that the Cavs transformed from “worst case scenario” into “NBA title contender.”

Still, Blatt was able to stretch out his veteran shooter a bit. In five April games heading into the playoffs, Miller was reintroduced to the hardwood and averaged 16.1 minutes a game, shooting a respectable 36.4% on his long distance attempts.

The biggest issue with Miller is that, for a player who is known for his shooting, he’s been pretty reluctant to let it fly. In his most recent stretch of games, Miller averaged fewer than three shot attempts per games, compared to Smith who averaged more than ten attempts per game against the Celtics.

If Miller is going to give the Cavs any boost, he’ll have to take a page from Smith’s playbook and not be afraid to shoot when he gets the open looks. At least, he should be seeing more open looks playing minutes beside James and Kyrie Irving than he has when mopping up games with the rest of the Cavs bench.

4.) And Marion might be the biggest X-Factor of this bunch.

Since spending much of the first half of the season as the team’s starting shooting guard, the 6-7 combo forward has played only 12 games since February 1. He is the most capable of replacing some of the rebounding the Cavs lost along with Love and is the worthiest candidate available to be tasked with matching up against taller players like Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol on defense. He’s also the only member of this bench troika to have left a recently good taste in the mouths of Cavs fans, coming up with two steals in under a minute of action in Game 1 against Boston.

If Marion can rediscover even some of his touch from outside — he’s 33% from three for his career — the Cavs might find that, along with James and Irving, they still have the necessary pieces necessary to reach the Finals.

See, everyone, this can still be fun. Maybe.