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In rough news for the team LeBron James called "top-heavy" last week, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will miss Monday's game against the Dallas Mavericks because of a back spasms.

Love left the Cavaliers' 107-91 victory over Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday in the first half when his back seized up. This was not exactly a novel experience for him. On Jan. 16, Love didn't play in the second half of a blowout loss against the Golden State Warriors because of back soreness, and he missed their game against the Phoenix Suns three days later. He did not travel with the team to Dallas in order to get an MRI.

It's possible Love will miss more games after this. Back problems should never be taken lightly, and teammate Tristan Thompson urged him to rest because the Cavs need him "for the long haul." This presents a problem -- their superstar is already frustrated by their relative lack of play-making, and Love is a huge part of their offense. Depending on what you think about Kyrie Irving, Love is either Cleveland's second- or third-best player. Early in games, the Cavs usually play through Love -- he's trailing only Anthony Davis and James Harden in first-quarter scoring -- and it's no coincidence that they are the best first-quarter team in the league, outscoring their opponents by 14.8 points per 100 possessions.

If you were to make an argument that Love is more important than Irving, you would probably start with the fact that Cleveland has been excellent with him on the court without James, while it has been absolutely awful with Irving on the court without James. Love has the Cavs' best individual net rating (plus-9.2 points per 100 possessions), and it's notable that they have been much worse on both ends when he's on the bench.

All of this is not to say that Cleveland is suddenly screwed just because Love is out of the lineup for a little bit. The Cavs are down an All-Star power forward, but they can shift James to the 4, arguably his best position anyway, and minimize the damage. Unlike most teams that lose an awesome rebounder, they have another one, Thompson; and unlike most teams that lose a deadly stretch big man, they have another one in Channing Frye. Love is special because he is both, and it will be a team effort to make up for his absence. The main issue, of course, is James' gripe: play-making.

Generally, when a 20-point scorer gets hurt, his team will try to make up for it with ball movement and player movement. There are opportunities for reserves to get more shots in the flow of the offense, and sometimes they can step up. This is no different for Cleveland, which got a season-high 19 points from Thompson on Sunday. The Cavs still need players to get them into their offense, though, and it helps if they can draw double teams and easily make plays for others. That's where they'll miss Love's work on the elbows and the block.

There's no way around it: With Love out, James and Irving have an even bigger offensive burden than usual. Since James was already frustrated by Cleveland's dearth of players who can dribble, pass and shoot, this does not seem like great timing. Still, it's much better to deal with this now than in the playoffs.