In today's Cavaliers' 108-104 win over the Pacers, the Cavaliers' highest plus-minus of the game came from Love, and he has scored 20+ in five consecutive games. Luck's rebirth in this season is like a play without a prelude, which has somewhat surprised fans who are familiar with his and the Cavaliers' past in previous seasons. And Love himself did not expect that he would be able to stay in Cleveland until the day when he would witness the team's re-emergence.
In this game, Love played 29 minutes off the bench, 6 of 13, including 3 of 6 from three points, 5 of 5 from the free throw line, 20 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists, plus-minus +13 ranked first in the team. This performance is also a continuation of Loaf's recent highlight performance. In the previous four games, Luck scored 22 points, 24 points, 24 points and 35 points in a row, and 2 of them played 20+10.
So far this season, Luck has averaged 14.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, shooting 45% from the field and a career-high 43% from three-point range. In December 2021, Love hit a total of 57 three-pointers, setting a new record for the cavaliers' three-point shooting per month. In the last nine games, Luck averaged 24.9 minutes per game, scoring 21.8 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists, shooting 51.3% and 49.4% from the field.
Of course, the Lefour outbreak is related to contracts. In 2018, Lefour contracted to stay with the Cavaliers for 4 years and 120 million, and this contract expires in 2023, and this summer Lefour has the right to complete an early renewal. As a result, this season has become a de facto "contract year" for Lefour. For the last pension contract of his career, it is conceivable that Lefu has such a performance. There are even people in the industry who are advocating that LeFou can compete for the best sixth person.
At the same time, Lefu also took this opportunity to show that he could still play an all-star performance after getting rid of the injury problem. And he is by no means a hero of a young team who relies on the old and sells the old. But from winning the championship in 2018 to today, there have been many experiences between Love and the Cavaliers during the period, and it is still regrettable to look back.
In the 2018 offseason, James left the Cavaliers for the second time and traveled west to the Lakers. As early as a year ago, Irving had already left the Cavaliers, and the Big Three had only worked together for 3 seasons before falling apart, and Love was the only one left behind. But fate was going to make a joke with him. After renewing his contract, Luck played only 4 games in the 2018-19 season, and was exempted from the game due to a left foot injury, and later underwent surgery. At first, Luck was expected to be out for 6 weeks, but in fact he returned to the field until February of the following year, missing a full 50 games.
This is where all the estrangement begins. The 2019-20 season was an "eventful year" for the Cavaliers and Love. In early December 2019, the news that the Knight had put Le Fu on the shelves was intriguing that the Knights' top brass remained silent about it, neither acknowledging nor denying it.
In fact, just 2 days before the news came out, there were reports that the Cavaliers had hoped that Lefour would take the injury to the battle, but the latter directly played and disappeared. In the next 2 games, LeFu returned, but only scored 13 points in the total of 5 of 19, which was completely grinding foreign workers. Even after being bloodied by the 76ers 94-141, Lovet publicly shelled the team: "We were rotten, useless, we didn't play well at any level of the game, the scene was extremely ugly!" Rumors of the deal spread at this point, rather like the Knight's response to Love.
The knight's civil strife also caused the newcomer to suffer. After breaking up with meritorious coach Tyrone Lou, after a transition between Larry Drew, the Cavaliers took on the University of Michigan coach John Bellaine. This decision proved to be debatable.
The contradiction between Lefour and Belleine gradually became public. In the final day of 2019 against the Raptors at the end of 2019 local time, Love played 30 minutes, scoring only 10 points and 11 rebounds on 7 of 7 three-pointers, and the Cavaliers also lost 97-117. During the game, Lefour suddenly asked Belleine to withdraw himself from the game, on the grounds that he could not keep calm about the selfishness of his teammates. An enraged Lefour was still slapping his chair on the bench.
A few days later, on Jan. 4, the Cavaliers lost 106-121 at home to the Thunder. Loew played 30 minutes and had just 12 points and three rebounds on 4-of-10 shooting. In an attack at the end of the second quarter, Lefour, who had already had a good opportunity to misplace Paul under the basket, watched Sexton hold the ball in the high position and could not get the ball for half a day. Helpless, he raised his hands high, took the initiative to run outside the three-point line to ask for the ball, and after getting the ball, he quickly passed it to Osman on the other side, and the strength obviously showed that he was already full of resentment.
It's also reminiscent of a pre-match scene. After shooting training, Love had emotionally expressed his dissatisfaction with the Cavaliers to Cavaliers general manager Altman.
After the game, manager Bele was calm, saying that he arranged for Sexton to carry the ball in the last attack of the first half, and he did not see Luck's chance to single Paul, "If I saw it, I would definitely ask to pass the ball in," Bellein said, "The fault is me, I have to apologize to Kevin." Speaking of Lefour's attack on Altman, Belleine also argued that Lefour was just too eager to win, and sometimes it was inevitable that there would be frustration.
But in the end, after the first 54 games of the season, Bellein still took the initiative to resign, and even willing to give up the remaining salary, and fled Cleveland without turning back. Although Love, out of courtesy, expressed regret for Belleine's dismissal and updated the social media to post intimate photos of him and Sexton, his words were no longer heeded.
Rumors about the Lofour deal are also ringing. In February 2020, the Blazers packed Whiteside and Bazemore, which was rejected by the Cavaliers; subsequently, the Cavaliers clearly marked the price, saying that they needed to exchange the first-round draft picks and young players in the ascending period for Love, but their sincerity was questioned by all walks of life. During this period, there were also rumors that Jazz and heat wanted to exchange Conley and Hiro for Lefu, and the parties concerned refuted the rumors. As Luck's performance gradually declined, his market value gradually shrank, so that later, teams were waiting for Love and the Cavaliers to complete the buyout to pick up the leak.
Seeing that the situation was like this, the Cavaliers also re-examined the prospects of Lefour's trade. In the midst of their hesitation, the opportunities were missed one after another, and Love stayed in Cleveland to this day in a state of criticism.
As the saying goes, "People are unlucky, and they plug their teeth when they drink cold water." In the summer of 2021, Love was determined to travel for the country, but after only playing in two warm-up matches, he was forced to withdraw due to a recurrence of a right calf injury. The general manager of the U.S. men's basketball team, Colangelo Sr., publicly stated that he had never thought that Luck would play, "not even sure how much oil he still had in the tank", it was Love who took the initiative to ask for help; but the results proved that Love was "still a long way from being able to play the game". He even called the introduction of Loaf "a big mistake in our team building."
The elder Colangelo poked the honeycomb with this remark, and Lefou then hit back with a rough hit when he was a guest on "The Shop", saying that the elder Colangelo only wanted to maintain his reputation and find a scapegoat, and he did not want to be a good gentleman, and said that James and Anthony were on his side.
However, as the so-called "mountains and rivers are doubtful and there is no way, the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village." This season, the Knights rose to become a dark horse in the East End, but the contradiction between Lefu and the Knights was instantly eliminated.
Of course, the outcome of Love's departure may still not be changed, after all, in the eyes of some teams that aspire to win the championship, Love is still a benign asset (of course, the premise is still a buyout), and the Cavaliers are still waiting for the price. Luck struggled to show for a pension contract, which would not necessarily be opened by the Cavaliers. (Supine Braces/Hairy)