{"id":589971,"date":"2026-02-08T06:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589971\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T06:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T06:35:14","slug":"james-hardens-15-fourth-quarter-points-lead-cavs-past-kings-in-his-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/589971\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden\u2019s 15 fourth-quarter points lead Cavs past Kings in his debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t always pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> executed well enough down the stretch to win James Harden\u2019s debut with the team. They defeated the hapless Sacramento Kings 132-126.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers\u2019 starting lineup was understandably disjointed at the start of the game. Their four-guard unit featuring Harden, Donovan Mitchell, Sam Merrill, Jaylon Tyson, and Jarrett Allen struggled to clear the defensive glass or stay in front of their man on that end. Sacramento took advantage by getting off to a hot start offensively.<\/p>\n

On the other end, Mitchell and Harden seemed unsure of who should be in control on offense. Both seemed like they didn\u2019t want to step on the other\u2019s toes, which led to a somewhat stagnant offensive attack.<\/p>\n

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Anything bought from the links helps support Fear the Sword. You can also shop all of Homage\u2019s Cavs gear HERE<\/a>. The link to the Donovan Mitchell NBA Jam shirt is HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sacramento pushed its lead to double figures in the middle of the first quarter, before the Cavs got back into the game with bench lineups featuring one of either Mitchell or Harden on the court.<\/p>\n

The Cavs took a narrow two-point lead into the break, but then gave it all away at the start of the third quarter, leading to the Kings regaining their double-digit advantage.<\/p>\n

Mitchell took over from there. His 12 third-quarter points helped keep the Cavs within reach heading into the fourth.<\/p>\n

It seemed like things were getting away from the Cavs again after a back-and-forth start to the fourth. The Kings grabbed a seven-point lead with just under four minutes left in the game, before the Cavs roared back.<\/p>\n

Two points from Allen and back-to-back threes from Harden gave the Cavs a one-point lead with just over two minutes left.<\/p>\n

The Kings didn\u2019t go away. DeMar DeRozan hit a big three to tie the game with just over 42 seconds left.<\/p>\n

Mitchell then forced a foul on the following possession and hit both free throws to give the Cavs the lead again. The Kings missed their final three shots, allowing the Cavs to come away with the victory.<\/p>\n

For as awkward as the Mitchell and Harden fit was in the first three quarters, they looked good together down the stretch. The duo combined for 32 of the team\u2019s 39 points in the final frame to pull out the victory.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t necessarily the prettiest debut for Harden, despite the solid box score numbers. It took him a while to get going offensively, and he seemed lost at times with the defensive rotations.<\/p>\n

That said, you could see how Harden can help this team, particularly down the stretch. His ability to get Allen easy looks and the gravity he possesses offensively are going to be incredibly useful. Harden played his best in the fourth quarter, pouring in 15 points, with the game on the line.<\/p>\n

On the night, Harden provided 23 points on 7-13 shooting, which included going 5-8 from three, to go along with eight assists and two rebounds.<\/p>\n

Mitchell carried the Cavs to the finish line. He scored 17 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter and was the best player on the court.<\/p>\n

Allen also had a strong showing. He provided 29 points on 11-12 shooting with 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n

The Kings were led by 30 points on 12-19 shooting from Nique Clifford. Westbrook supplied 21 points and nine assists.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers have now won three-straight games and eight of their last nine. This includes going 3-1 so far on their Western Conference road trip.<\/p>\n

The Cavs will take on the Denver Nuggets on Monday for their last game of this road trip. Tip-off is at 9 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t always pretty, but the Cleveland Cavaliers executed well enough down the stretch to win James Harden\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,52699,4056,6,986,477,4055],"class_list":{"0":"post-589971","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavs-scores","10":"tag-kings","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sacramento","13":"tag-sacramento-kings","14":"tag-sacramentokings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116033626816090478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589971","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=589971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}