Kevin Love says the Celtics player who dislocated his shoulder did it on purpose

kevin love shoulder

(ESPN)

The Cleveland Cavaliers swept the Boston Celtics on Sunday and moved on to the second round of the NBA playoffs, but their title hopes took a hit.

In the first quarter Kevin Love dislocated his shoulder after getting tangled up with Celtics big man Kelly Olynyk. Olynyk seemed to hook and hold Love's arm, preventing him from grabbing the rebound and pulling his shoulder out of its socket when Love tried to free himself.

Love raced to the locker room and didn't return to the game:

After the game Love said Olynyk purposely tried to injure him:

I thought it was a bush league play. I mean I was out there, Olynyk was in a compromising position, had no chance to get the ball and it's just too bad that he would go to those lengths to take somebody out of the game and do that to someone. I have no doubt in my mind that he did that on purpose.

Olynyk's teammates told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo that Olynyk was "sort of uncoordinated and awkward," which led to the tangle up.

Olynyk told the Boston Herald: "That's ridiculous. I would never intentionally hurt Kevin or anyone else. He locked my arm up; I locked up his as we were fighting for a loose ball. You lock up arms all the time in this league."

So what, precisely, were Olynyk's intentions?Look at his left hand!?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/WFlJ6CURXd

— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) April 27, 2015

It's a potentially devastating injury for the Cavs. While Love hasn't put up the sort of individual number he did in Minnesota, he has still been integral to a Cleveland offense that has been borderline unstoppable since February. With the resurgent Bulls looming in round two, this is the worst possible time for Love to go down.

We won't know the extent of the injury until Love gets some further tests, but he could miss significant time. Sports injury expert Jeff Stotts of In Street Clothes noted that the length of Love's absence would be determined by the extent of the damage to the surrounding tissues. Some NBA players have come back from a dislocated shoulder in as little as two weeks, while others have missed as many as 57 games.

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