Kevin Love placed in concussion protocol, listed as out for Game 7

Update, 2:20 p.m. ET: Kevin Love has not only been placed in the NBA’s concussion protocol, but he has been listed as out for Sunday night’s Game 7, the Cavs announced Saturday afternoon.

Kevin Love was evaluated today prior to the team’s flight to Boston this afternoon. He is experiencing concussion-like symptoms and has been placed in the league’s concussion protocol. He is now listed as Out for tomorrow night’s game in Boston. His status will be updated as appropriate.

If this postseason hasn’t proven it enough, winning a playoff game on the road in TD Garden is tough. The Boston Celtics are a perfect 10-0 at home this postseason compared to just 1-7 away from home. What a difference, right? Although the Cleveland Cavaliers have three losses in the Eastern Conference Finals, all three have come at Boston, losing by an average of 17 points per defeat.

Even with the wine and gold’s struggles in TD Garden this series, they will be forced to win Game 7 in Boston Sunday night if they want to make their fourth consecutive Finals appearance. The problem? They may have to try and do so without Kevin Love. After he and Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum collided about five minutes into the Cavs’ Game 6 win, forcing the big man to spend the rest of the game in the locker room. After the game, Love admitted that it’s a “toss-up” whether he’ll be able to play in Game 7 or not, according to The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd.

Here’s a look at the collision:

Although the team has yet to say that Love has entered into the league’s concussion protocol, after he didn’t come out of the locker room during the final three-and-a-half quarters and with what he told Lloyd, it seems as though that’s exactly what he has, but it’s all just speculation at this point.

So far this series, Love has proven to be a matchup problem for Boston. If they put a bigger defender on him he can spend his time around beyond the arc, either finding open three-pointers or forcing one of the Celtics’ big men to remain by him, opening up the paint for other Cavaliers. If Boston puts a smaller defender on him, the power forward can use his size and frame to dominate his defender in the post, forcing opponents do double him, therefore leaving his teammates open.

He has struggled for much of the postseason, shooting just 39 percent from the floor and 35 percent from long distance, but Love has still been the wine and gold’s second-best scorer, averaging 13.9 points. He has also been the Cavs’ best rebounder, pulling down 10 rebounds a night, 2.1 of which are offensive rebounds.¹

So far this series, Love has (surprisingly) played much better in TD Garden than he has in Quicken Loans Arena. Although he is still struggling from beyond the arc, knocking down just 29 percent of his threes at Boston, the 29-year-old has averaged 17.7 points, 10 rebounds, and 2.3 assists while shooting 44 percent from the floor in the three games away from Cleveland so far this series. Compare that to the fact that he has shot just 26 percent from the floor and 22 percent from three-point range in the three home games and that’s a significant difference between the two locations.

Winning a Game 7 on the road is tough, doing so in Boston is even tougher. Trying to do so without one of your two All-Stars makes for a rough situation. But if the Cavs want to advance to the Finals for the fourth consecutive year, they may have to do just that even without their second-best player. You can never count out a team led by LeBron James, but this may add another road block for James and the Cavaliers ahead of Sunday night.

1. Which is second on the team, only behind Tristan Thompson’s 2.5 offensive rebounds per game this postseason. [↩]