After a surprising 98-80 home loss to the Indiana Pacers in the first game of their first-round series Sunday, the Cleveland Cavaliers struck back with a 100-97 win in Game 2 Wednesday, led by 46 points and 12 rebounds from LeBron James. But they lost a key contributor along the way. That would be forward Kevin Love, who had 15 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes, but left with just under four minutes left in the fourth quarter after appearing to injure his thumb on the ball as the Pacers’ Victor Oladipo extended it:
Here’s a replay that shows this in more detail (warning: not recommended for the squeamish)
As TNT’s Marv Albert notes on the first clip, that looks like the thumb on Love’s left hand, the hand he broke at the end of January. And it certainly doesn’t look good. We’ll see if the Cavs provide an update on Love later, but losing him (and the 17.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per game he averaged this year) definitely could pose a problem for them going forward.
[Clippit]
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About Andrew Bucholtz
Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.