All-Star power forward Kevin Love has seen a dip in his production over the past few games with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and head coach David Blatt said the team needs to do more to keep that from happening.
Love had scored 16 points or more in five of the Cavs' first six games, but has failed to score more than 13 in each of the last four - including a season-low 10 points in Wednesday night's 92-90 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.
"We run specific stuff for Kevin and for other guys," Blatt said to the media after practice Thursday. "You know, earlier in the season when he was scoring the ball better, it was the same offense. So I'm not sure that it's as much related to that as just the game flow and situational things. But we want to help Kev. He needs to be involved and he needs to involve himself and it's our job to help him."
"I'll just say we're 10 games in, we're looking at different stuff," explained Love. "I need to find myself. I think everybody knew coming in that we'd have to sacrifice, but at some point we're going to need some low-post scoring and some outside shooting."
Love was the unquestioned No. 1 option with the Minnesota Timberwolves during the past few seasons, but has seen a sharp decline in points per game (26.1 to 16.7) and field goal attempts (18.5 to 13.1) since joining the Cavs. His shooting has also dropped from 45.7 percent last season to just 38.9 percent this year.
Some of this is to be expected as Love is playing alongside two other All-Stars in Kyrie Irving and LeBron James, but he has expressed his frustrations about his lack of touches so far this season.
"First of all, we're dealing with human beings and you're dealing after each and every game with emotions," Blatt said of Love's comments. "People are full of adrenaline or are excited or are, as I said, emotional. I really don't pay too, too much attention. When I talk to guys face-to-face, that's really what's important to me."
Cleveland's next game is Friday night at 8:00 p.m. ET against the Washington Wizards.
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