LeBron James is expected to miss two weeks as he tries to get his back and knee fully healthy with the Cavaliers.
That means a lot of the scoring burden will now fall to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving — but more specifically to Love, who among the new "Big Three" has seen his production take the biggest hit from a year ago.
So Cleveland without LeBron is going to be a pretty good offensive team, with Love taking a lot of shots … and a team that struggles defensively.
We're not sure if that sounds familiar, but it should if you watched Timberwolves games in recent years — most notably last season.
"I think you got to look at this as a glass half full," said Love, who is averaging 16.7 points on 42.7 percent shooting for Cleveland after putting up 26.1 points on a 45.7 percent clip last season with Minnesota. "I know that our best player is out, our leader is out, but it's a chance, an opportunity for other players to step up. Myself included."
He's had chances to do that in the past. The numbers have been there, but the wins haven't. In the evolution of Love, this will be a very interesting stretch to watch.
