When James and Irving all left the Cavaliers, they never thought that Kevin Love was the last member to leave Cleveland in 2016, and when the team began to rebuild, Kevin Love was born, but unfortunately was eventually left by the management to accompany this group of princes to study.
And this season when the Cavaliers' record improved, Kevin Love was finally waived by the team, after the Cavaliers officially bought Kevin Love in February, the 34-year-old veteran chose to join the Heat, who desperately needed interior personnel, and in the 21 regular season games for the Heat, Kevin Love started 17 of them, although he averaged only 7.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, but he did share a lot of pressure on Bam Adebayo.
With the Heat defeating their opponents by 11 points in the play-off game with the Bulls, they got a ticket to the last train of the playoffs and entered the playoffs as the eighth in the East, and when facing the Bucks in the first round, the outside world did not think that the Heat could stage the Black Eight miracle, but with Jimmy Butler's determination to "my life is up to me", they really solved the battle in 5 games and entered the semifinals stage.
The Heat in the fifth game away from home are indeed under great pressure, even if they hold the game point, they face a championship experience against the Bucks, although this game can win, Jimmy Butler, who scored 42 points, has to take credit.
But if it weren't for Kevin Love's sudden firing in the second half and scoring consecutive three-pointers from the outside, there would not have been Jimmy Butler's magical performance at key moments. Kevin Love played 32 minutes in the whole game, scoring 15 points and 12 rebounds on 5-of-11 three-point shooting, and he can still play this in this extremely important battle, and it can be seen that Kevin Love should still have a lot of oil in the tank.
As an interior player with shooting ability, Kevin Love was at the peak of the Cavaliers, indeed relying on a good hand of rebounding and outside shooting, became the right-hand man around Irving and James, and this time came to the Heat, although the competitive state can not be the same as the peak, but Kevin Love, as a "role player", still provided great help to the team.
In these 5 games, Kevin Love averaged 9.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.8 minutes of playing time, shooting 43.3% from three-point range, and he shared a lot of pressure on Bam Adebayo on the defensive end, and his 100-step projection on the offensive end also made up for Jimmy Butler's poor outside weakness to a certain extent.
This time can play the black eight with the team and enter the semifinals, I believe that Kevin Love is also very happy in his heart, after all, his old club Knights have been eliminated by the Knicks in the first round, and the heat of the Black Eight is just about to meet the Knicks in the semifinals, when Kevin Love can continue to have an excellent performance and avenge the Knights, it is indeed worth looking forward to.
The Heat, which lacks major generals, has successively damaged Taylor Hiro and Victor Oladipo in the playoffs, and the offensive end has to bear great pressure, and if Kevin Love can strengthen his offensive aggressiveness, the Heat is not without a chance to continue to burst energy in the next round of the series, so as to enter the East finals again.
Although they reached the Eastern Conference finals stage last season, the Heat eventually lost to the Celtics by seven in the end, and if they can reach the Eastern Conference finals again this time, the potential opponent waiting for them is likely to be the Green Army, and Kevin Love, the X-factor, will play a crucial role.