The Cleveland Cavaliers were already having a tough season. Outside of a stretch at the end of 2017, the Cavs were struggling with the new pieces they acquired over the summer and had yet to make up for the loss of Kyrie Irving in the trade that sent him to the Boston Celtics. Many hoped that the arrival of Isaiah Thomas from the injured list to the starting lineup would cure all ills but when IT arrived, he brought a lot of problems. Thomas struggled on defense, wasn't hitting shots at the frequency that he did in Boston, and started an internal civil war when he questioned teammate and respected veteran Kevin Love for leaving a blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder due to illness.
It turns out that Thomas might have known something after all.
Why did Kevin Love leave the Cavs loss to the Thunder early?
When Kevin Love left the loss, he said that he was sick. Love then missed practice after the game and it looked like he was under the weather, possibly coming down with a bug of some sort. However, it turns out that Isaiah Thomas was right in questioning what was really wrong with Love. The Cleveland Cavaliers power forward had another reason he left the Thunder blowout early.
ESPN reports that Kevin Love was not sick when he left the game, but he was feeling down. It turns out that the Cleveland Cavaliers power forward was suffering through panic attacks in the game. Love has not responded to this yet and has not talked about the Oklahoma City Thunder controversy at all.
Kevin Love and his mental disorder
While Kevin Love did not address leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder game, sources close to the Cleveland Cavaliers said that was the exact reason that Love left the game early. This was brought to the surface when Love did an interview with The Player's Tribune about suffering from panic attacks.
This was in response to DeMar DeRozan speaking out about NBA players and mental illness and the fear of speaking up about it.
DeRozen wanted to let other NBA players know that they are not alone and it is alright to speak out about battles with mental illness. That is when Kevin Love stepped up and made his revelation. Love said he originally suffered a panic attack last November when the Cleveland Cavaliers played the Atlanta Hawks.
It resulted in a hospital stay and eventually to meeting with a therapist.
LeBron James is very supportive of his Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, saying that Kevin Love is more powerful now than ever before and he saluted and paid respect to Love. As for Isaiah Thomas, calling out Kevin -- after he experienced a panic attack -- was wrong and moving him to the Lakers might be the best move the Cavs ever made.