{"id":522199,"date":"2026-01-07T09:23:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522199\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T09:23:23","slug":"player-grades-cavs-at-pacers-darius-garland-sends-a-message-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/522199\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Cavs at Pacers – Darius Garland sends a message"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> managed to win a game they probably shouldn\u2019t have. Darius Garland deserves credit for that.<\/p>\n

All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.<\/p>\n

29 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds<\/p>\n

Did you forget who was the best closer in Cleveland last season? Garland didn\u2019t. He went perfect in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 29 points to lead the Cavs to a comeback victory. The more Garland returns to being himself, the better this team will look.<\/p>\n

The broadcast cut out, so you might have missed the clutchest shot of the night. Here you go.<\/p>\n

Support us and rep Evan Mobley with Homage!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve partnered with Homage to help provide Cavs fans with the best gear. Anything bought from the links below helps support Fear the Sword while also allowing you to rep the Cavs. You can also shop all Homage Cavs gear HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can grab the Mobley shirt seen above HERE<\/a>.The Mobley trading card shirt can be bought HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, 2 steals<\/p>\n

This one is tough to grade.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a bit ticked that Mobley didn\u2019t dominate this matchup and put the team on his back when they so clearly needed him to take over. Still, he was fine on both ends of the floor. It\u2019s just getting harder and harder to accept \u2018fine\u2019 from a player of this caliber.<\/p>\n

19 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists<\/p>\n

Merrill might be the only reason Cleveland was in this game at halftime. His hot shooting hasn\u2019t cooled down at all this season. He went 6-10 from downtown tonight.<\/p>\n

8 points, 9 assists, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s give Porter a huge pat on the back. He\u2019s become everything the Cavs have asked of him. Porter is a scrappy, do-it-all backup guard who nearly had a triple-double tonight. They don\u2019t win this game without a pair of Porter plays where he first dove to the ground to recover an offensive rebound, then shortly after exploded through the air to block a Pacers layup. That\u2019s a lot of heart from a 6\u20192\u201d guard.<\/p>\n

12 points, 2 assists, 9 rebounds, 5 turnovers<\/p>\n

On one hand, Hunter did a lot to help his team today. Grabbing 9 rebounds and shooting an efficient 5-9 from the floor is pretty good. But Hunter also had 5 turnovers and 4 personal fouls. He wasn\u2019t exactly engaged on defense, and his decision-making has been way off the mark.<\/p>\n

19 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t blame you if you\u2019ve felt annoyed by Allen at times this season. He hasn\u2019t always looked enthusiastic out there. But the stats speak for themselves tonight. A big-time double-double when the team needed it most. Allen also grabbed the game-clinching rebound when Indiana attempted to recover their own missed free throw.<\/p>\n

3 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists<\/p>\n

Tyson is working through some speed bumps. He struggled in his last two games and was pretty quiet tonight.<\/p>\n

7 points, 1 assist, 3 rebounds<\/p>\n

Tomlin still has limitations. Opponents don\u2019t defend him behind the three-point line and he\u2019s prone to making mistakes on defense. But he was a team-high plus-10 tonight. Energy can go a long way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers managed to win a game they probably shouldn\u2019t have. Darius Garland deserves credit for that.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,1236,7814,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-522199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cavs-analysis","11":"tag-cavs-player-grades","12":"tag-cleveland","13":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","14":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115853093936458123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}