{"id":671759,"date":"2026-03-22T01:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T01:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/671759\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T01:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T01:48:28","slug":"cavs-erase-15-point-fourth-quarter-deficit-to-defeat-pelicans-111-106","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/671759\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs erase 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat Pelicans 111-106"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> made things more interesting than they needed to be. They fell down by 15 early in the fourth quarter to a bad New Orleans Pelicans team before turning things around. Strong finishes from James Harden and Donovan Mitchell were enough to secure the 111-106 victory.<\/p>\n

As has been a recent trend, the Cavs started the game well. They got out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter due to their offense. Cleveland went 4-9 from three and 8-11 on two-point shots. That was good enough for a 34-point first quarter.<\/p>\n

Once the offense slowed down, the defense couldn\u2019t do enough to keep the lead.<\/p>\n

The outside shot abandoned them in the second quarter as they went 2-12 from beyond the arc in that frame. That allowed their one-time 13-point advantage to turn into a three-point deficit at the break.<\/p>\n

Things didn\u2019t get better in the third quarter. The Cavs went 2-8 from three, which led to them only scoring 23 points in the third, and losing the quarter by nine.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans pushed their advantage to 15 before the Cavs flipped the momentum.<\/p>\n

Harden got things going with back-to-back triples. Mitchell followed it up with a triple of his own and two makes at the free-throw line. Then, Harden drained a three off a Mitchell feed after the Cavs grabbed two offensive rebounds on that possession.<\/p>\n

That three capped off a 16-2 run that turned it from a 15-point game to a one-point game. Even though the Cavs didn\u2019t take the lead, that sequence sapped the energy out of the building and the Pelicans as a group.<\/p>\n

The Cavs kept their foot on the gas from there. Mitchell and Harden continued taking turns carving up the Pelicans\u2019 defense as the run extended to 26-6.<\/p>\n

The Cavs retook the lead on a Max Strus layup at the four-minute mark. They never gave it up from there.<\/p>\n

Mitchell officially ended the game by converting an and-one layup with four seconds left to secure the five-point victory. In the end, the Cavs won the fourth quarter 35-18.<\/p>\n

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

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

Mitchell and Harden led the Cavs\u2019 comeback, but both struggled through the first three quarters.<\/p>\n

Mitchell compiled 15 points on as many shots in the first three quarters. He provided 12 in the fourth quarter. He finished with 27 points on 9-23 shooting with seven rebounds and three assists.<\/p>\n

Harden was 3-9 from the field in the first three quarters. He scored 13 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter. Harden went 8-17 from the field while providing 10 assists and six rebounds in the win. He was a team-high +14.<\/p>\n

Despite how good Harden and Mitchell were throughout the fourth quarter, Evan Mobley was the Cavs\u2019 best player for the full 48 minutes.<\/p>\n

Mobley made it difficult for a bigger New Orleans team to finish in the paint. On the other end, Mobley did a great job of using his athleticism to create easy looks in the paint. This led to him putting up 18 points on an efficient 8-10 shooting to go along with eight rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a steal.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans were led by 25 points from Zion Williamson on 10-14 shooting. Dejounte Murray added 12 points and 10 assists in the loss.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the prettiest game. The Cavs shouldn\u2019t have been down double-digits to a bad Pelicans team late. At the same time, the Cavs showed how well the Harden and Mitchell backcourt can work in the clutch. Reps like this are important for a pairing that hasn\u2019t been together long.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers will be back in action on Tuesday when they host the Orlando Magic for an 8 PM prime-time game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers made things more interesting than they needed to be. They fell down by 15 early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,52699,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-671759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavs-scores","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-orleans","12":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","13":"tag-neworleans","14":"tag-neworleanspelicans","15":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116270316219191015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671759","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=671759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}