{"id":426370,"date":"2026-01-24T04:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426370\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T04:32:11","slug":"player-grades-cavs-vs-kings-an-ugly-win-is-still-a-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/426370\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Grades: Cavs vs Kings \u2013 An ugly win is still a win"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> didn\u2019t put their best foot forward, but they still found a way to win 123-118 over the Sacramento Kings. Pretty or not, the Cavs have now won nine of their last 13 games.<\/p>\n

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

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Donovan Mitchell<\/p>\n

33 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds<\/p>\n

Mitchell still isn\u2019t playing his most efficient basketball. Some of that is to be expected with Darius Garland out. And while I could nitpick the way he got his 33 points on 25 shots tonight \u2014 he only had 1 turnover \u2014 and the Cavs won the game in large part because of his threat as a scorer.<\/p>\n

Though I can\u2019t give him higher than a B+ because of his defense. It wasn\u2019t great.<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/p>\n

Evan Mobley<\/p>\n

29 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 blocks<\/p>\n

This was the type of performance that allows you to let out a deep breath. You aren\u2019t crazy for thinking Mobley is a star, after all. He\u2019s capable of dominating every facet of the game, and the Kings had no answers for him tonight.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Grade: A+<\/p>\n

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

The Mobley trading card shirt can be bought HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jaylon Tyson<\/p>\n

17 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists<\/p>\n

Opponents are daring Tyson to prove he can handle more offensive responsibility. Blitzing the ball out of Mitchell and challenging Tyson to make them pay. He\u2019s continued to win this bet, making great decisions in the short-roll or attacking closeouts.<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n

Craig Porter Jr. <\/p>\n

5 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The Cavalier offense is begging for a three-point shooter. The lack of Sam Merrill, Darius Garland, and Max Strus has exacerbated Porter\u2019s limitations. He shot 1-3 from deep tonight and had a difficult time generating openings as the Kings simply didn\u2019t care to defend him outside of 20 feet.<\/p>\n

Grade: D+<\/p>\n

De\u2019Andre Hunter<\/p>\n

9 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think anyone knows what to do with Hunter right now. He has to find his footing and stop this downward spiral at some point.<\/p>\n

Grade: F<\/p>\n

Join the conversation!<\/p>\n

Sign up for a user account<\/a> and get:<\/p>\n

Comment on articles, community posts<\/p>\n

Rec comments, community posts<\/p>\n

New, improved notifications system!<\/p>\n

Jarrett Allen<\/p>\n

15 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block<\/p>\n

Props to Allen for taking the physicality of this game head-on and earning 10 trips to the free-throw line. He had a near double-double and helped Cleveland win the rebounding battle.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n

Nae\u2019Qwan Tomlin<\/p>\n

4 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 block<\/p>\n

A commenter recently asked me to stop grading Tomlin on a curve. I won\u2019t be doing that \u2014 but I will give him his lowest grade in quite some time. Tomlin was ignored on offense and totally lost on defense tonight. This wasn\u2019t a good performance, even for a player on a two-way contract.<\/p>\n

He avoids the F for his inbounds steal and block on Russell Westbrook\u2019s three-point attempt in the second half.<\/p>\n

Grade: D-<\/p>\n

Larry Nance Jr.<\/p>\n

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

Junior is back and playing better basketball than before the calf injury. Nothing special, but a servicable 14 minutes off the bench is something this team hasn\u2019t always had in their frontcourt rotation.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

Dean Wade<\/p>\n

6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal<\/p>\n

Wade did his job tonight. He\u2019s getting back to himself defensively and shot 2-4 from three. He was a team-high +21.<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers didn\u2019t put their best foot forward, but they still found a way to win 123-118…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,138362,27494,27496,13054,51299,27495,133524,51300,27497,161825,355,14828,6404,111822,99],"class_list":["post-426370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-craig-porter-jr","tag-darius-garland","tag-dean-wade","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-evan-mobley","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-jaylon-tyson","tag-larry-nance-jr","tag-max-strus","tag-naeqwan-tomlin","tag-nba","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sam-merrill","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}