LeBron suggests Kevin Love struggling from crisis of confidence

An 11-game winning streak has gotten the Cleveland Cavaliers' wayward season back on the rails. 

After a relatively sluggish start that raised a few eyebrows, followed by the longest injury layoff of his career, LeBron James is looking like himself again. Kyrie Irving has also been scorching and dropped a career-high 55 points last week, while the additions of Timofey Mozgov and J.R. Smith are paying dividends. 

But not all of the Cavaliers have found their footing. Kevin Love has continued to look like a lost and weary soul, struggling to assert himself at the offensive end, where his touches are in steep decline and his world-class jumper has seemingly abandoned him. His offensive production has actually been considerably worse during the Cavs' recent surge than it was before. 

In their latest win, a closer-than-expected decision over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night, Love finished with just five points on 1-of-7 shooting, and didn't attempt a single field goal after the first quarter. 

While Love has talked frequently since his offseason trade to Cleveland about the difficulty of adapting to an offense in which he isn't the centerpiece, James seems to feel that the issues start with Love's head. 

"I think Kev had some shots that he passed up on," James said after the game on Monday. "Maybe he felt that he just wasn't in a good rhythm, but I know I hit him with a few (potential) shots after the first quarter where he had some good looks when he decided to swing-swing (with a pass), which is OK, it kept the ball moving. So, I think for Kev, I think his confidence maybe shooting the ball is a little down, but for me as a player, I get him good looks. I want him to shoot the ball and he needs to shoot it with confidence."

Love, for his part, hasn't changed his tune. 

"I'm just doing what's being asked of me," he said. "I think I've kind of been doing that all year. I've been keeping my head up and keeping positive, glass half-full. And I'm just trying to impact the game in other ways as best I can. I think tonight I did that on the defensive end - stuff that doesn't necessarily show up in the stat sheet, and I've been trying to rebound the ball and get inside the paint a little bit more these past few games. ...

"But, you know, getting good looks there. Not for lack of confidence, no."

In fairness to Love, he did haul in a game-high 15 rebounds Monday, and registered a game-high plus-26 rating in his 33 minutes. Despite his struggles, his net rating during the win streak is plus-16.5, third on the team behind James and Mozgov. 

Still, the offensive end is where Love has typically made hay, and if the Cavaliers hope to compensate for what's been a mediocre defense even during this impressive run, they'll need him to be more involved. 

"That shouldn't happen," head coach David Blatt said of Love's lack of field-goal attempts Monday. "It absolutely shouldn't happen.

"I don't think we moved the ball well enough. We could have played at him a little bit more. We haven't practiced, again, for awhile. We got to work on a few things and clean that up."