{"id":695380,"date":"2026-04-03T05:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695380\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T05:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:28:14","slug":"player-grades-cavs-at-warriors-james-harden-closes-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695380\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Cavs at Warriors – James Harden closes the door"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> overcame a heavy turnover game to win on the road against the Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n

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

25 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block, 5 turnovers<\/p>\n

This was a weird game from Mitchell. He attempted some truly audacious shots in the first half, including the one below.<\/p>\n

Yet, as much as I want to bemoan the quality of attempts like this, I can\u2019t deny that Mitchell was scoring efficiently. I can\u2019t say I love the process. But for tonight, I\u2019ll live with the results.<\/p>\n

Turnovers were an issue for Mitchell. Though each unforced error seemed to fuel his frustrations and make him more engaged defensively. As I said, this was a contradictory game.<\/p>\n

19 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 4 turnovers<\/p>\n

Harden\u2019s defense has been as bad as advertised. It\u2019s not fun watching him get backdoor cuts for easy layups. It is, however, fun to watch him throw lobs. The duality of man.<\/p>\n

The Cavs closed this game behind two plays from Harden. First, he drew a double team and dished to Max Strus for a huge three-pointer. Then, he danced one-on-one for a tough floater in the lane to extend the lead to six with 21 seconds remaining. That will help your grade.<\/p>\n

12 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal<\/p>\n

Mobley has historically struggled against Kristaps Porzingis. With this in mind, he certainly handled that individual matchup better than in the past. Mobley didn\u2019t appear as bothered by KP\u2019s length and was able to help contain him on the other end.<\/p>\n

Zooming out, Mobley lost this matchup in the non-Porzingis minutes. That was his opportunity to make his presence felt. Instead, Mobley lacked the aggression he had in March. Let\u2019s hope he finds that again soon.<\/p>\n

16 points, 13 rebounds, 1 steal<\/p>\n

Allen is still clearly working through some pain in his knee. He hasn\u2019t been as explosive with the ball. Though, he\u2019s still converting most of his looks at the rim and playing a key role as Cleveland\u2019s defensive anchor.<\/p>\n

Gotta hit more than half of your free throws, Fro. He shot 6-12 from the line tonight.<\/p>\n

13 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen a few games like this from Sam recently. He couldn\u2019t find his rhythm from downtown, but he made up for it by getting downhill and creating plays off his gravity. Still, we\u2019d like to see Sam get free for a big scoring night. He\u2019s not out there to pass the ball.<\/p>\n

24 points, 2 assists, 5 rebounds<\/p>\n

The Cavs lose this game without Strus Point, blank, period.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just his pair of triples in the clutch, but also his activity away from the ball. Strus helped the Cavs secure numerous rebounds with timely box outs \u2014 and he even forced a tough turnover on the Warriors by pressuring the ball on a defensive board.<\/p>\n

4 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sobering up to the Ellis experience on defense. He isn\u2019t as sound a defender as the blocks and steals would make you think. His game has some rough edges in terms of suppressing shot attempts and making the correct rotations.<\/p>\n

That said, he\u2019s given me the exact opposite impression on offense. Ellis has broken out of a box and become more than a traditional catch-and-shoot player. I\u2019ve enjoyed watching him cut to the basket and play from the middle of the floor. He had two nice dunks tonight off of cuts.<\/p>\n

12 points, 6 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 turnovers<\/p>\n

Schroder nearly threw this game off the rails in the fourth quarter with a flagrant foul followed by a tech for complaining to the officials. Yes, he was being grabbed \u2014 but that was a bad time to get on the referee\u2019s bad side.<\/p>\n

He saves his grade by scoring efficiently tonight. Schroder shot 4-7 from the floor and 3-3 from the free throw line. That\u2019s a big boost in a game where the Cavs struggled to score consistently.<\/p>\n

The last few games haven\u2019t been kind to Bryant. His impact is slipping as the season goes on. This wasn\u2019t his best effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a heavy turnover game to win on the road against the Golden State Warriors.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,1236,7814,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-695380","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\/116339127309279499","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695380","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=695380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}