Game 1 blowout has Cavs considering lineup change
BOSTON — Put Kevin Love’s name atop the list of the Cavaliers that walked out of Cleveland’s 25-point Eastern Conference finals Game 1 loss to Boston a little staggered, but with an unbowed head.
The reason: He’s got a teammate by the name of LeBron James that’s had a way of responding after lopsided playoff defeats.
Just ask the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers stunned the Cavs at home in their first-round opener, rolling to an 18-point victory. In Game 2, James was all but unstoppable as he replied with a 46-point, 12-rebound performance.
“I expect him to have a big response,” Love said of James on Monday. “He’s always done it. Even before he came back to Cleveland and since I’ve been here he’s always responded big. … He’s going to approach this game as one that he’s going to have to lead and bounce back.”
Even if James does have a big Game 2 today in Boston, he’ll need some help — and the Cavaliers know it.
Love said he thought the Cavs were a “little soft” in the first half in Game 1. Getting tougher could mean a lineup change for the Cavaliers.
Coach Tyronn Lue acknowledged that he was at the least considering inserting Tristan Thompson into the lineup after Boston’s Al Horford had his way in Game 1, scoring 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
“It’s definitely something we have to weigh,” Lue said. “We weighed it before the series started, but we’d won seven out of eight and we weren’t going to adjust until someone beat us and we didn’t play well with that lineup and that got us to this point.”
Lue said numbers showed that in the last three years, out of all the players that have guarded Horford over at least 30 possessions, Thompson is No. 1 in the league defending him.
“So that’s a good thing to know,” Lue said.
Boston doesn’t seem concerned about who the Cavs put on the floor.
“We got a lot of guys where we just don’t care,” Marcus Smart said. “(Cleveland is) here for a reason, because of the talent that they have. But we have talent as well.
“We have guys that are fearless. So we just go out there and do what we do.”