{"id":572131,"date":"2026-03-31T04:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572131\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:00:07","slug":"player-grades-cavs-at-jazz-mitchell-scores-34-against-former-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572131\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Cavs at Jazz \u2013 Mitchell scores 34 against former team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/fearthesword.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cleveland Cavaliers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Cleveland Cavaliers&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> beat the Utah Jazz 122-113.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.<\/p>\n<p>Donovan Mitchell<\/p>\n<p>34 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 steal<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">One might take this stuff for granted. You shouldn\u2019t. This was Mitchell\u2019s 32nd game of the season, scoring more than 30+ points. The fact that he did it while shooting 10-18 from the floor and without limiting Evan Mobley (who also scored 34 points) is everything you want from your star.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Everything\u2026. except stellar defense. I can\u2019t give him the full A+ because of that. Sorry, Don.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: A<\/p>\n<p>James Harden<\/p>\n<p>13 points, 14 assists, 6 rebounds<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Harden has now dished 28 assists across his last two games. That\u2019s impressive. More impressive is how he kept the offense focused on feeding Mobley. The Cavs didn\u2019t have it going from downtown (just 6-32 shooting), but they scored their most points in the paint all season \u2014 in large part due to Harden\u2019s playmaking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Again, lackluster defense is holding back his grade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: B+<\/p>\n<p>Evan Mobley<\/p>\n<p>34 points, 17 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal<\/p>\n<p>This was Mobley\u2019s best game of the season. Aggressive drives and deep seals in the paint led to his highest scoring game since last year. Mobley made himself available early and often, playing with so much authority that Cleveland couldn\u2019t help but play through him. More of this, Ev.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: A+<\/p>\n<p>Sam Merrill<\/p>\n<p>9 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds<\/p>\n<p>Merrill turned Utah\u2019s defense into Swiss cheese with his quick attacks off the catch and well-timed cuts. He\u2019s blossomed into an all-around offensive player, dashing to the basket and even tossing a lob to Mobley in the second half.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">That\u2019s important to note, because Sam shot 0-8 from deep tonight but finished 4-6 inside the arc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: B\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Keon Ellis<\/p>\n<p>13 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, block<\/p>\n<p>Ellis makes some great defensive plays. He also makes some bad ones. That\u2019s something that\u2019s become more apparent as he plays more minutes in Cleveland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">For every steal or block, there\u2019s a blown switch or gamble that leads to a breakdown. Some of this should be cleaned up as Ellis becomes more familiar with his team. But some of the dangerous gambles he takes are inherent to his playstyle. He\u2019s a high-risk, high-reward defender.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ellis turned this into a positive outing by shooting 5-7 inside of two-point range.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: B<\/p>\n<p>Craig Porter Jr.<\/p>\n<p>2 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds<\/p>\n<p>Porter played his first game since March 13. It was a quiet performance, with Porter mostly getting his feet back under him rather than doing anything special.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C-<\/p>\n<p>Tyrese Proctor<\/p>\n<p>8 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist<\/p>\n<p>Proctor was the best guard off the bench tonight. The rookie shot efficiently (3-6 from the floor) and fit in defensively. I\u2019m excited to see him develop and hopefully crack the rotation next season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: B<\/p>\n<p>Dennis Schroder<\/p>\n<p>3 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds, 1 steal<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Schroder shot 1-4 and wasn\u2019t particularly helpful on defense. That said, he didn\u2019t turn it over and dished 3 assists. So it wasn\u2019t all bad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: C\u2013<\/p>\n<p>Thomas Bryant<\/p>\n<p>2 points, 7 rebounds, 3 turnovers<\/p>\n<p>Bryant gets stretched thin against faster teams. We\u2019ve seen that a few times this season. He finished as a team-worst minus-12 in 18 minutes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Grade: D<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Utah Jazz 122-113. All grades are based on our usual expectations for each&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,2357,2359,24602,2358,37217,29683,459,49961,82,14713,2355,15717],"class_list":{"0":"post-572131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","11":"tag-craig-porter-jr","12":"tag-dennis-schroder","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-evan-mobley","15":"tag-keon-ellis","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sam-merrill","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-thomas-bryant","20":"tag-tyrese-proctor","21":"tag-utah-jazz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}