INDEPENDENCE: Kevin Love is healthy again, but it remains to be seen whether his ailing jump shot has been cured as well.
Love returned to the lineup Wednesday against the Milwaukee Bucks after missing one game with a head and chest cold that he battled for nearly a week. He has been fighting shooting struggles much longer. Love entered Wednesday shooting 39 percent, including 25 percent from 3-point range since the All-Star break.
“It’s a mentality. More than anything confidence plays a huge part in this league,” he said. “Just continue to breed that with the work that I put in and put myself in good spots on the floor because I’ve had the shots, just some of them haven’t been falling.”
Love acknowledged he has passed up some open shots lately, particularly 3-pointers, “if I think we can get a better shot or I can close out a drive if my shot hadn’t been falling. But there have been times I probably should’ve taken the open 3 rather than try to drive inside or make the extra pass.”
LeBron James said the Cavaliers aren’t overly concerned with Love’s shooting struggles.
“He’s had the opportunities. Just got to make ’em, knock ’em down,” James said. “We’ve got to continue to go to him, believe in him. We’re not too worried about his shooting struggles. He’s got so many other ways he can affect the game by his rebounding, him playing hard and him affecting the game other ways than just shooting the ball.
“He has to get himself going offensively. We can do a job of just getting him some easy ones, draw his defender off of him, see if we can get him an easy one where he doesn’t have any bodies on him. But him being aggressive as well, getting to the free-throw line and watching it just go in will help him.”
Blazin’ sales
It probably isn’t a coincidence Blaze Pizza’s revenue exploded about the time James received an ownership stake in the company and began promoting it. Blaze reported sales of $101 million in 2015, more than triple the $33 million the company earned in 2014.
James parted ways with McDonald’s last fall to sign on with Blaze, but said his name alone won’t sell pizzas, headphones or any of the other products he pitches.
“Your name can only go so far, and then people start to look at the product and see what you’re actually putting out. Then it becomes authentic,” James said. “You can’t really lie to the people. Once my name gets out there, people are intrigued about it, but then they go and see if it’s official or not. Our headphones [Beats] are really good and our pizza is really good.”
Big Four?
James told Bleacher Report he would “take a pay cut” to play with close friends Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul and hopes the foursome can play together before they retire.
“I really hope that, before our career is over, we can all play together,” James told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in an interview last month prior to the All-Star break. The report, which focused primarily on the relationship between James and Anthony, wasn’t published until Wednesday. “I would actually take a pay cut to do that. It would be pretty cool. I’ve definitely had thoughts about it.”
Wade and James can both become free agents this summer, while Paul has one more year on his deal and a player option for 2017-18. Anthony can’t be a free agent until 2018 and holds a player option for 2018-19.
Quitting time
James on Northern Iowa’s stunning loss to Texas A&M last weekend in the NCAA Tournament: “I would quit basketball. … You up 8 with 20-plus seconds, you up five with 10 seconds? I would quit.”
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.