WASHINGTON: Before Kevin Love’s two-step drop and heave Monday night, before LeBron James made one of the most sensational shots of the season to force overtime in the Cavaliers’ thrilling win at the Washington Wizards, there was another impressive but less flashy James-Love hookup earlier in the fourth quarter.
James caught a pass from Kyrie Irving in the lane, spun and found a wide-open Love on the perimeter. His 3-pointer from the wing extended the Cavs’ lead to 116-112 with 1:16 left in regulation and the two stars celebrated with a screaming, leaping hip bump before James tapped Love on the chest for a job well-done.
It was similar to the head pat James gave Love at the end of regulation, after Love’s pinpoint-perfect chest pass traveled the length of the floor and right into the arms of James, whose dribbling, pivoting 3-pointer was the type of circus shot that Wizards guard John Wall insisted James could only make “one out of a million times.”
There are certain, unique traits Love brings to this team. His rebounding and that pass were two of the more obvious.
As trade rumors continue to swirl around Love, his relationship with James is again under scrutiny following a report in the New York Daily News that James is pushing the Cavs to send Love to the New York Knicks in exchange for good buddy Carmelo Anthony. James, Love and coach Tyronn Lue strongly denied the claim.
“It’s trash,” James said. “And the guy who wrote it is trash, too, for writing that, especially during the game like that.”
The relationship between James and Love certainly seems to have evolved from their early days together, when James was subtweeting Love on social media. Team officials will acknowledge that the chemistry between the two stars was frigid back then.
On Monday, five of James’ career-high 17 assists went to Love. The only player who benefited more was Tristan Thompson, who scored six times on passes from James primarily in pick-and-roll situations.
In fact, James has set Love up for more shots this season than he has any other teammate — James is averaging 2.1 assists per game on passes to Love, according to the league’s data. The next-closest teammate is Channing Frye, who James finds 1.4 times per game for baskets.
That assist figure has steadily risen every season, from 1.6 their first season together to 1.7 last year and now 2.1. It’s a significant jump that is more a signal of Love’s fit this season; James was always looking for him, Love is just making more shots now.
The feeling within the Cavs has always been that Love isn’t off-limits in trade discussions, they just weren’t comfortable moving him in a one-for-one deal for Anthony.
“Just because a team wants you and they ask about you and they want you on their team, that doesn’t mean we want to trade you. That just means people like you and they’re trying to acquire you,” Lue said. “Kevin should be happy that teams want him. But he’s not going anywhere.”
That was the first time Lue or General Manager David Griffin emphatically stated Love wouldn’t be traded. Of course, former coach David Blatt said the same thing during summer league in 2014, insisting Andrew Wiggins “wasn’t going anywhere.” A month later, he was on a flight to Minnesota.
Knicks President Phil Jackson is so determined to rid himself of Anthony, meanwhile, that he took to Twitter on Tuesday to take another jab at his beleaguered star. After Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding wrote that Anthony is more comfortable with his life in New York than he is trying to win a championship, and that lack of a winning mentality is why Jackson wants rid of him, Jackson tweeted: “Bleacher’s Ding almost rings the bell, but I learned you don’t change the spot on a leopard with Michael Graham in my CBA daze.”
Graham won a national championship at Georgetown in 1984 before Jackson coached him for one season with the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association.
Is Jackson at the point where he’s willing to just give Anthony away to be rid of his contract? He reached that point with J.R. Smith a few years ago and was willing to include Iman Shumpert just to get out from under Smith’s contract. James happily scooped up Smith, whom he liked despite Smith’s shaky reputation among league executives, and turned him into an integral piece of a championship team.
Could James and the Cavs do the same with Anthony? Perhaps, but no one within the organization believes the Knicks are that desperate yet to just unload him for spare parts. Love, meanwhile, is dismissing the latest twist in this never-ending saga.
“What do they say? A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put his pants on,“ Love said. “It’s just not true. It’s almost laughable.”
Almost. Not quite. The trade deadline is still two weeks away. Anything is possible.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.