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Kevin Love ate bad fish, got food poisoning, posted a double-double anyway

Ben Rohrbach
Senior NBA writer

Kevin Love could not stop vomiting on Sunday, but unlike so many others doing the same, it doesn’t appear the Cleveland Cavaliers forward’s ailment resulted from excessive partying on New Year’s Eve.

Following Monday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans — a game in which Love managed to notch a double-double in 24 minutes — Cavs coach Tyronn Lue revealed to reporters the three-time All-Star lost 10 pounds in the previous two days from a bout with food poisoning from some bad sea bass.

On the morning after a New Year’s Eve victory against the Hornets in Charlotte, Lue received a phone call from Cavaliers trainer Stephen Spiro, who told the coach Love “had lost 10 pounds and he was throwing up and whatever else I can’t say,” according to reports from Cleveland.com and ESPN.com.

We’ll let you venture a guess as to the nature of “whatever else I can’t say” was, but you can imagine while everyone else was burning a candle at both ends on New Year’s Eve, Love was doing something else at both ends. Love reportedly believes the sickness stemmed from some bad fish on the team flight home from Charlotte, which is weird, since nobody else on the team came down with the bug.

If Kevin Love looks the same to you, that's because his food poisoning countered the 10 pounds the camera added. (Getty Images)
If Kevin Love looks the same, that’s because his food poisoning countered the 10 pounds the camera added. (Getty Images)

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Teammates LeBron James and Tristan Thompson lucked out double time by chartering a separate flight with their significant others from Charlotte to Miami on New Year’s Eve for LeBron’s 32nd birthday at Rockwell nightclub, where flaming Hennessy bottles replaced sea bass on the menu.

Come Monday, James was battling an illness, as was Channing Frye, and Lue canceled shootaround in hopes some of his players could play that night against the Pelicans. After all, the Cavs were already down to 10 men with Kyrie Irving (hamstring), J.R. Smith (thumb) and Mike Dunleavy (ankle) all injured.

Still, Lue didn’t consider Love would play, given the aforementioned vomiting and “whatever else.”

“We didn’t think he was going to be able to play today,” said Lue, via Cleveland.com. “He said he’s going to give it a go. He came out there and gave us 24 strong minutes, which we needed. He had 12 and 11 in those 24 minutes but just his presence on the floor was big for us and for him to gut it out the way he did was big for us.”

Love struggled from the floor, shooting just 5-of-19 total and 0-for-7 from three-point range, but that’s almost expected when you drop from 251 pounds to 241 in 48 hours. He played 23 of the game’s first 32-plus minutes, and then returned for a brief stint midway through the fourth quarter before exiting the game for good with 6:54 remaining and Cleveland clinging to an 80-78 lead. Love finished with an impressive 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists on the night, and the Cavs got the win, 90-82.

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In addition to Love, the ailing James amassed 26 points, seven rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes, and a recovering Frye added 14 points and six boards in 25 minutes off the bench. Afterwards, Lue said Frye was sneezing on everyone in the huddle, and LeBron was coughing in the locker room before leaving with a bag full of Airborne, Tylenol PM and electrolyte drinks, Cleveland.com reported.

“Can’t have any excuses no matter what’s going on with the team,” James told the media. “Has to be next man up and when guys’ numbers are called they’ve got to be ready to go. As ugly as it was tonight, just got to find a way to get through it and we did that.”

Quite a start to 2017 for the defending champs. On the bright side, while everyone else tries to stick to their New Year’s resolution of losing weight after the holidays, Love can already cross that off his list.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!