Kevin Love Wants More Inside Touches With Cavs

By Ed Carroll | Oct 23, 2014

Oct 14, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love (0) shoots a three-point basket in the first quarter against the Milwaukee Bucks at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

Cleveland Cavaliers power forward Kevin Love knows it’s only the NBA preseason, but said he needs to get himself near the basket more to truly be effective for the Cavs.

Kevin Love has had an up-and-down preseason with his new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, but while neither he nor the Cavs are worried about him in the regular season, Love said that in order to get his game back to the level he’s used to, he needs to get himself near the basket more and get more touches closer to the rim.

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Love has been 10-for-23 from beyond the three-point arc this preseason, but has really only had two great games in the preseason with the Cavs, both earlier in the month versus the Milwaukee Bucks and Miami Heat, two consecutive games where he went a combined 17-for-23 in field goal shooting for 50 points total.

“My entire life I played the game from inside-out,” Love said. “So the more touches I can get inside to get myself going, the better. I’m not accustomed to starting out a game shooting a three, so it’s just something that I see.”

The Cavs have had an inconsistent preseason in general, due to an ankle injury to Kyrie Irving earlier in the month and scheduled rest days for LeBron James, Love and others. The Cavs’s offense often will call for Love to be near the perimeter, but he said he has to remind himself to go to the paint, too.

“Yeah, the offense is built that way, but I just have to make a conscious decision to get myself in there,” Love said of how Cavs coach David Blatt wants the offense to run. “There are a lot of times where I just find myself fading to the 3-point line. For me, it’s a mentality and that’s easy to fix.”

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