The Cleveland Cavaliers are locked into a playoff spot and the goal now is for the team to get healthy. Whether they are the third, fourth or even fifth seed, a healthy Cavs team can play with anyone -- especially with LeBron James healthy. However, the injury bug has really hit the team this year. While the Cavs let two injury prone players go in Dwyane Wade and Derrick Rose, they ended up losing a few more to injury, including Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Cedi Osman and Rodney Hood. While Osman is still out, the other injured players returned as Cleveland reeled off five straight wins.

However, in their loss to the Miami Heat the Cavaliers lost Kevin Love once again to injury.

The latest Cavaliers injury news

According to reports, Kevin Love will miss the Cleveland Cavaliers game with the Charlotte Hornets tonight due to his subluxation front tooth. Subluxation means that the tooth is tender to the touch and it has increased mobility but is not displaced yet. The injury was caused when Love took an inadvertent elbow to the mouth.

The play saw Kevin Love charging center Jordan Mickey and one of his front teeth was knocked loose. Love went down and he missed the rest of the first quarter. He returned for the second quarter but was removed at halftime when he started to show concussion symptoms.

The extent of the injury

Kevin Love is missing tonight's game, but since there was a chance he would end up put into the concussion protocol, there is no telling when he can return to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs doctors reevaluated him on Wednesday morning and determined that he will miss the Charlotte Hornets game tonight.

NBA.com reported that Kevin Love officially entered the concussion protocol today. The Cleveland Cavaliers will update his status "as appropriate." A player in the concussion protocol cannot return until he:

  • is without concussion-related symptoms.
  • is evaluated by a physician.
  • has completed the return-to-participation protocol.
  • has discussed his return with the NBA director of the concussion program

Kevin Love had missed 21 games with a broken bone in his left hand and had just returned last week.

The Miami Heat loss when the injury occurred was his fifth game since his return. It didn't look like Love missed a beat, averaging a double-double in his first four games back from injury -- with 20.3 points and 10 rebounds a game for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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