Kevin Love Says Cavaliers Should Have Kept Team Meeting Info in Locker Room

Suffice it to say Kevin Love is not pleased about the leaks that came from the Cleveland Cavaliers' heated team meeting Monday. 

"I felt like we should keep it on the court or in the locker room, but obviously it didn't stay there," Love said Tuesday, per Tom Withers of The Associated Press.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN provided details of the meeting Monday, reporting some Cavaliers players were unhappy Love left Saturday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder then did not show up to practice Sunday. 

The report described the meeting as "loud and intense," likely a product of the Cavaliers' spiraling season. Cleveland is 3-9 in its last 12 games and reached a nadir Saturday, allowing 148 points in a lackadaisical loss to the Thunder. An illness limited Love to three minutes, contributing to a trend of struggles that have dogged him all month.

The All-Star forward is averaging just 12.3 points and 6.3 rebounds per game and is shooting 38.8 percent from the floor in January.

Relied upon to be the second option offensively, Love has seen his role fluctuate following Isaiah Thomas' Jan. 2 return from a hip injury. In fact, Thomas' return has roughly coincided with the Cavaliers' struggles, as no one seems sure how to integrate him into their offensive flow. Having Thomas and Love on the floor at the same time has been a defensive nightmare as well.

The Cavaliers are only one game ahead of the Miami Heat for third place in the East and are closer to being out of the playoffs than they are to overtaking the Boston Celtics for first place in the conference.

Love has become a popular scapegoat at times during his tenure in Cleveland, most notably during his first season. His tensions with LeBron James led to a summer 2015 clearing of the air that helped propel the Cavs to an NBA championship in 2015-16. 

Three-plus seasons into Love's time with the team, though, it'd be hard to blame him if he were tired of the criticism.