Let’s be honest: Kevin Love has not been a reliable source of production for the Cleveland Cavaliers in their playoff run.

In the seven-game first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, he averaged just 11.4 points and 9.3 rebounds in 32.6 minutes, shooting 33.3 percent from the field. Then, in the second-round sweep over the Toronto Raptors, he averaged 20.5 points and 11.5 boards in 34.3 minutes, clearly thriving against his opponent’s frontcourt defense.

In the current Eastern Conference Finals series against the Boston Celtics, Love was averaging 15.0 points and 11.0 rebounds heading into Game 6. But, in the first quarter of that contest, he collided with Celtics rookie Jayson Tatum and immediately left the court to return to the locker room for the rest of the contest, entering the league’s concussion protocol.

While Love struggled offensively yet again in this series, shooting 37.5 percent overall and 26.9 percent from three-point range, the threat of a huge offensive night still existed whenever he stepped foot on the court.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, they’ll be without that threat in Game 7, as Love has officially been ruled out due to a concussion.

"We'll have to prepare our team to play well regardless of who's on the floor for them," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said on Saturday, per ESPN. "[Love's absence] changes some of the things they run, offensively. Obviously they have a package of Love plays that they go to on offense, so they end up doing more stuff with LeBron, I thought [George] Hill and [Jordan] Clarkson were good off pick-and-rolls last night, I thought that Jeff Green was really good, and I thought that they continued to have all of the different little wrinkles for [Kyle] Korver and [JR] Smith coming off the screens. Obviously, they run a little bit less of the Love stuff and more of the other stuff.”

Cleveland's outlook

Although the Cavaliers offense has, at times, looked better without Love on the court during the playoffs, his ability to create spacing due to his long-range shooting ability will be missed. But, Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue is trying to be optimistic.

"You can switch more," Lue said, per Tom Withers of The Associated Press. "I think when Jeff [Green] is in there playing that position, it makes you more versatile defensively. But we miss his rebounding. We miss his offensive ability. It kind of all cancels out.”

After Love went down in Game 6, Green stepped up and produced 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting in 31 minutes off the bench. He also matched up well with Boston’s versatile wing players. Larry Nance Jr. also added 10 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes. Therefore, he’s a candidate to see added minutes in Game 7, as is Kyle Korver, who chipped in with six points in 26 minutes in Game 6.

It will be interesting to see how Cleveland responds to losing Love. Since they’ve relied heavily on LeBron James this postseason, they’ll likely continue to do so in a major way on Sunday night.