The Cleveland Cavaliers featured Kevin Love early during their win on Saturday over the San Antonio Spurs due to the absence of Tim Duncan.

Love had 14 points in the first 10 minutes of the game and finished with 21 overall.

"Ever since I was young I was one of the big guys," Love said. "At my position I'm not the tallest guy in the world but I've always played inside/out. When I get to the free-throw line or get those post touches it helps me have continuity and feel a little bit of a flow and involved in the offense. That definitely helps me and makes the hoop bigger in a lot of ways just getting those easy touches."

"Yeah, yeah, he's played some good ball over the last year and a half that we've had him," LeBron James said of Love's recent stretch with three straight 20-plus scoring nights. "I think right now he's finally getting comfortable in his role. I think coach (Tyronn) Lue has done a great job clearing the air with what he expects out of all of us, including Kev, and he's a big focal point of our team. When he's playing locked in like this, it's great for us."

CJ McCollum has become one of the NBA's best midrange shooters.

"It's been a part of my game for life. It's tougher to finish in the lane so you've got to find different areas to score efficiently and the mid-range contested shot is a shot a lot of teams will live with," McCollum says. "And it's a shot I'm willing to live with as well just because I've gotten so many shots at it and I'm comfortable with it."

McCollum is shooting 46.6 percent on mid-range shots season, according to NBA.com. He's attempted the 12th most mid-range shots in the league and has the highest field goal percentage of anyone in the NBA who has taken at least 250 such shots. 

LeBron James has never played on a team ranked higher than 13th in the NBA in possessions per 48 minutes.

Dating back to James' first season in Miami, in 2010, James' offenses ranked 21st, 15th, 23rd, 27th, and 25th, and this year Cleveland is 28th in the NBA with 94.93 possessions per 48 minutes.

James was asked about the Cavaliers playing at a faster pace under Tyronn Lue.

"I've played at a slow pace and I've played at a fast pace before in my career and I definitely know the difference."

The Golden State Warriors lead the NBA in scoring efficiency and are second in pace.

"This is what coach wants," James said. "This is what coach wants to do and this is what we're going to do. This isn't a LeBron thing. I'm talking out of IQ of the game, but this is what coach wants to do, so this is what we're going to do."

The Cavaliers are fifth in offensive efficiency this season.

"I just think it opens up the floor for a lot of our guys," James said. "Some of the games that we've lost, even though we've had some success, it's come from our pace being very, very slow. I think in order for us to be successful, playing at a higher pace will help us out in the long run."

Kevin Durant spoke about the differences between the Oklahoma City Thunder offense and the ball movement of the San Antonio Spurs.

"Look, we're not the San Antonio Spurs. We're not going to make 30 passes in a possession. We're not that," said Durant. "Of course people want us to be that. That's great basketball, don't get me wrong, but we're not that. We've got guys that can score. we've got two guys on this team that can get a bucket. There's going to be times we gotta ISO. There's going to be times we gotta be aggressive to look for our shot or make a play.

"But basketball is simple, when you got a guy that can get into the paint, that's what San Antonio wants to do, but they've got guys, multiple guys that'll pass, pass, dribble, get to the paint. But we've got guys, Russell, myself, Dion, Cameron Payne, we can get into the paint, kick out or dump down for a layup. That's ultimately what you want, get the defense off balance, drive, kick, make the right play. Simple basketball, but we just don't make five or six passes before we do it sometimes. And that's not a knock against us I don't think. We've got dynamic guys that can play and do different things on the floor, I think that's to your advantage."

The San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors finally meet on Monday for the first time this season, which can see a real shift in Efficiency Differential.

After the Warriors' fast start to the season, the Spurs caught them in this category in mid-December.

Both the Spurs and Warriors have an Efficiency Differential twice as good as every team in the NBA except the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Week 13 Rankings

1. San Antonio: 15.4
2. Golden State: 12.1
3. Oklahoma City: 8.4
4. Cleveland: 5.6
5. Toronto: 4.8
6. L.A. Clippers: 3.5
7. Boston: 3.5
8. Indiana: 2.5
9. Atlanta: 2.4
10. Detroit: 1.6
11. Charlotte: 0.9
12. Chicago: 0.7
13. Utah: 0.2
14. Dallas: -0.3
15. Miami: -0.4
16. Orlando: -0.5
17. Houston: -0.8
18. Portland: -1.1
19. Sacramento: -1.1
20. New York: -1.7
21. Washington: -1.7
22. Memphis: -2.6
23. New Orleans: -2.7
24. Minnesota: -3.9
25. Denver: -4.1
26. Milwaukee: -5.2
27. Phoenix: -5.2
28. Brooklyn: -8.0
29. L.A. Lakers: -10.5
30. Philadelphia: -10.9

Tyronn Lue want Kevin Love to run pick-and-rolls and spread the floor when he's on the floor with LeBron James and Irving, while he wants Love at the elbow when he's out there without them.

Opposing scouts and coaches have wondered aloud for over a year why the Cavaliers didn't use Love at the elbow.

“I think it’s putting me in a place where I’m definitely comfortable,” Love said. “A lot of people get caught up in I guess me shooting the ball. But one thing I know I can do is pass, especially in the half court and especially at those elbows. It’s going to take a little bit of time but just getting back into that sort of rhythm and being able to find guys is going to be fun.”

Andre Drummond is shooting 35.8 percent from the free throw line this season, leaving the Detroit Pistons vulnerable to the Hack-a-Drummond approach.

“In the gym, he’s made a lot of progress,” Stan Van Gundy said. “You can see the work and practice sessions where he’s gotten a lot better. But in games, it’s actually gotten worse.

“There’s clearly a psychological component to it and something that he’s got to continue to work through in terms of his mental practice and his routines to get to the point that it will translate into games.”

Van Gundy said Drummond’s technique is improving.

“He can get in the gym and is shooting the ball a lot better,” Van Gundy said. “But I’m not going to say he’s shooting 90 percent in the gym. He’s not. But he can go in the gym every day and shoot 70 percent-plus. And right now it hasn’t been able to translate into the game, and we’re working on that.”

Kobe Bryant continues to be an outspoken critic of how AAU basketball has impacted the modern game.

"I hate it because it doesn't teach our players how to play the right way, how to think the game, how to play in combinations of threes," said Bryant.

"I think everything is a reward system. I think the coaches who are teaching the game are getting rewarded in one fashion or another. It's just a showcase. I think it's absolutely horrible for the game."

Bryant believes younger players lack certain fundamentals.

"Yeah, but I think that is just by luck in the generation that I grew up in," he said. "My generation is when AAU basketball really started becoming s---. I got lucky because I grew up in Europe and everything there was still fundamental, so I learned all the basics."

The Cleveland Cavaliers had no clue LeBron James was serious about returning in 2014, which was part of the reason why they hired David Blatt.

James' reps were surprised by the Cavaliers' decision to hire Blatt and also hadn't waited to see if James would have input.

The Cavaliers also didn't have enough cap space initially to offer James a max contract.

The Cavaliers had drafted Andrew Wiggins and Blatt was expecting to try to improve a young team built around Kyrie Irving.

"David was hired to coach a developmental team and young players who would've wanted to please him," one team source said. "He ended up coaching a finished product where the players expected him to please them."

Blatt was also offended by being treated as a rookie coach. Blatt had been a coach for years in Europe but he had no NBA experience.

"I've been a head coach for 22 years. People overlook that too easily and, I think, unfairly," Blatt said last season. "I am not now, nor have I have been for quite some time, a rookie coach."

The first priority of Tyronn Lue as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers is to establish a consistent second unit.

The Cavaliers complained about how David Blatt was unpredictable with his rotations.

"I want to try to play 10 guys," Lue said. "Our goal is the long haul of getting to the playoffs and then we can try and shorten the rotation. But as of now, I want to try playing 10 guys so that way we can keep guys ready so we won't run into the same problems we ran into last year in The Finals where guys went down, and the guys [that didn't play], they didn't have a flow to their game because they hadn't played in a while."