Love, Zeller appreciate roles
Both willing to lose minutes if it’s what’s best for the team
DENVER — The transparency is appreciated. So is the situation.
So, no, Miami Heat big men Kevin Love and Cody Zeller were not surprised about being held out of Monday night’s decisive Game 7 victory over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, after playing rotation roles for most of this postseason.
“We talked about it,” Zeller said of conversations with coach Erik Spoelstra leading into that game. “He told us Haywood [Highsmith] would be the backup center for Game 7.”
Having signed with the Heat ahead of the buyout deadline on Feb. 20 with a goal of quality playoff playing time, Love, 34, said he appreciated the decisions necessary at this stage of the season, when so much of the playoffs are about adjustments and alterations.
“I mean, it made perfect sense to me, honestly,” Love said of being held out of both Games 6 and 7 against the Celtics, the type of benchings that previously led to the request for his release from the Cleveland Cavaliers. “I obviously was eager and wanted to play, kept myself ready. At the same time, those matchups, how they took [Robert] Williams out of the starting lineup, decided to go small, that’s how kind of it plays into matchups, that’s how it works within the playoffs.”
Similarly, Zeller said transparency is all a player can ask from a coach.
“I was sitting on a couch in January with no team,” said Zeller, 30, who had been out of the league for more than a year before being added in February. “So now I am with a team and sitting on a bench.
“Haywood played really well against Boston’s small lineup. If I was the coach, I would have done the same thing.”
With the Denver Nuggets a different type of challenge in these NBA Finals, both Love and Zeller are prepared for what might come next in the power rotation beyond starting center Bam Adebayo.
“If we need to give Bam a rest, we’re here,” Zeller said ahead of Thursday night’s Game 1 at Ball Arena of the best-of-seven championship series.
Love said this is too far down the road for any player to be questioning role or rotation.
“I think the beauty of it is you get to reset the deck, you kind of get to figure out what the matchups are going to look like in this series,” he said. “Again, this is a great group to be a cheerleader for.”
With Monday’s victory, Love still has yet to lose an Eastern Conference playoff series, now in his fifth Finals, after his four appearances with the Cavaliers from 2015 to 2018.
“It’s an amazing thing,” he said. “It’s what you play for. As a player, being a competitor as well, what it’s all about. But I do think being here with a different team and with the Miami Heat, just such a storied franchise with so much rich history, I think it’s very sweet being here for a fifth time.”
For Zeller, it also is a series with unique meaning, having been befriended over his career by Nuggets Hall of Fame forward Bobby Jones, who also lives in Charlotte.
“We’re really close. Actually I’m getting married in August, and Bobby is going to be one of my groomsmen. We’re that close,” Zeller said of the 71-year-old defensive specialist who was enshrined in Springfield in 2019. “He was one of the first people that reached out to me when I got drafted in Charlotte my rookie year. I didn’t know a single person in Charlotte, 20 years old, moving away from home, and him and his wife, Tess, cooked me home-cooked meals once a week when I was in Charlotte. We played tennis together, ping-pong, board games. We’d do all kinds of stuff.
“He’s become really good for me, as well, just because he’s been — he’s won a championship, he’s a Hall of Famer, but he also kind of puts things into perspective of there’s more to life than just basketball, as well.”