Cavaliers Power Forward Kevin Love had a fantastic game on Sunday afternoon in Game 1 of the First Round against the Detroit Pistons.
Love scored 28 points, knocked down four three-pointers, and hauled in 13 rebounds.
Love was used at the center position throughout the game, which gave Detroit some matchup problems.
Head Coach Tyronn Lue praised Love after the game, saying:
“I thought Kevin set the tone early posting up, getting into the paint and getting a couple of fouls on their four-man… I just think when we put Kevin at the 5, he’s a tough cover when he is picking and popping.”
We might see that continue for the rest of this best-of-seven game series.
Sunday was not Love’s only great game against the Pistons, though.
He has made it somewhat of a habit to take advantage of that matchup all throughout the 2015-2016 season.
Looking back at the three other games when Love was on the court against Detroit this season, the power forward scored 24, 29, and 19 points, respectively.
In the four total games between the regular season and playoffs in 2015-2016, Love is averaging 25 points and 8.75 rebounds per game against Detroit.
He’s also shooting at a 49 percent clip from the field (34/69) and 50 percent from downtown, knocking down 13-of-26 attempts from beyond the arc.
Compare that to Love’s season averages of 16 points per game, 42 percent from the field, and 36 percent from three-point range, and it appears that this matchup suits Love perfectly.
He’s been one of the less consistent players on the Cavs in 2015-2016, but it looks like we may be starting to have a large enough sample size to expect big things from him going forward in this series.
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