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Donovan Mitchell & James Harden DOMINATE the 4th as the Cavaliers upset the Nuggets to end road trip



Donovan Mitchell & James Harden DOMINATE the 4th as the Cavaliers upset the Nuggets to end road trip

Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points, including two free throws with 0.9 seconds left after James Harden’s tying 3-pointer, and the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied to beat the Denver Nuggets 119-117 on Monday night.

Harden finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in his second game with Cleveland. Harden, acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 4, scored 23 points in his Cavaliers’ debut three nights later.

Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, but missed a potential winning 3-point shot at the buzzer. Two nights after Jokic passed Oscar Robertson for second place in career triple-doubles, he notched his 183rd.

Monday night was the 14th time Harden has played against Denver since the start of the 2024-25 season, including a seven-game slugfest in the first round of the playoffs last year.

“Even if you’re prepared for (Harden), his ability to go get 28 and 12, it’s historical,” Nuggets coach David Adelman said before the game.

Harden keyed a Cleveland rally that cut Denver’s 11-point lead to 106-104 but Christian Braun, playing his fourth game back from a left ankle injury, drained a 3-pointer and Jonas Valanciunas hit two free throws to make it 111-104. | https://www.espn.com/nba/recap/_/gameId/401810622

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44 Comments

  1. Thing about bigs is you need to keep them active on offense to keep them active on defense most the time. Keep Allen involved – and Harden is AMAZING at this – and you will see greater engagement on both sides.

  2. I always thought Allen was better than Mobley. He just doesn't get the opportunites. You just watched him score 40 points even before Harden was on the team. If you run an offense heavy on Allen, it works.

  3. Tavis says some of the most insignificant things on this show. Smh. Darius is not and NEVER will be the player Harden is. Even with the age gap.

  4. Shoutout tyvis for defending Darius, garland has hit plenty of big shots in his short career to this point

  5. G bush is correct. Teams fear Harden they never did for Garland. You can tell by the way they team guard him. Garland aint never getting 10 rebounds and 4 blks in a game

  6. Jarrett Allen hasn't changed one iota, he's still the same rock-solid, rim-protecting big we've always known, the only real difference is Garland and Donovan Mitchell aren't hogging the rock and iso-ing every possession anymore.

    Now, with James Harden at the helm dishing early and setting guys up properly, the offense is flowing like never before, exactly like we saw the last time a healthy Ricky Rubio was out there patrolling the floor. Now just like back then JA is finally getting the ball early, in rhythm, and right in his sweet spots, and everything just clicked. We're seeing that same unlocked ball movement and spacing again, but on another level with Harden's elite shooting.

    JA stays consistent; the backcourt usage shift changed everything.

  7. Harden attracts so much attention , it makes things so much easier than everyone else

  8. These guys miss the obvious. The Cavs have looked great many times over the past few years and what stops them? Injuries. It always happens because they play in Cleveland. This soft team will not go anywhere.

  9. I’m gonna have to be the downer. None of this matters if they don’t at least make the finals. The regular season doesn’t matter anymore.

  10. Harden gets the ball to the bigs quickly and creatively, giving them time to operate. When Mobley comes back, no more of this experimenting with him as a "point foward" b.s. Kenny.
    Back to being a more traditional PF. Mitchell and Harden are your prime ball handlers. Mobley is going to be fed in the right spots and will be very happy, just like Allen is now.😊

  11. THIS IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HARDEN AND GARLAND! WITH GARLAND WE WOULD HAVE LOST THESE LAST 2 GAMES

  12. Allen get more plays now tht mobley out kenny need to run more plays through allen then Mobley i was saying this last year he better then Mobley

  13. Garland will never be James harden even with the age gap, if we are trying win right now harden is the answer if we want to win in 5 years then we would've stayed with garland but he is no where near harden

  14. Jarret Allen is the same exact player harden is just making it easy for him to score but it’s working out good so that’s cool

  15. Garland has his games where he takes over but he's not as consistent as harden and harden when he's on is really unstoppable and harden knows nobody can guard him that's the difference

  16. And yes they did get deeper and tuffer garland was too small and soft and defense hardens 6'5 and all muscle while keon and Dennis are hound dogs it's night and day what the Cavs did at the trade deadline

  17. was at the game last night, crowd found every reason to boo harden, until he hit that step back 3 and shut them up. felt so good as a cavs fan!

  18. Harden is the reason Embiid has a MVP. You give him a good center he will make him an allstar. You give him a allstar center he will make them mvp.

  19. Harden has always been been good with deflections and steals so this guy saying its just a new guy bump is crazy. Harden is slow on defense thats his defensive problem. meaning guys can blow by him cuz he's slow it doesnt mean he doesnt play defense. He's led the league in deflections. learn bball if your gonna be behind the computer on a bball show. 905 is the toronto area code.

  20. It is night and day..Harden attracts more ppl than DG..Dg is not rebounding and teams are not going to pick on harden like they did DG

  21. Nah Darius and harden is big difference when players get physical he is taken out of the game. James can handle that and still make an impact

  22. Harden is ridiculously talented. Him and Don are a crazy back court combination. They going to be a real problem in the playoffs

  23. Harden has been one of the smartest players in the league for 10 years +, and he's also always been capable of playing good defense since coming into the league. He just chooses when to play D. He shut Jokic down when it counted the most.

  24. Im glad he said something in defense of Garland. The disrespect they were showing him was insane.

  25. I enjoy listening to G Bush. He's a REAL CLEVELAND SPORTS FAN he shows that he enjoys CLEVELAND sports. He roots for CLEVELAND…is he biased towards CLEVELAND…YES…AIN'T THATS EXACTLY WHAT A FAN IS SUPPOSED TO BE! Unlike what I saw from some of these other guys, hating on Sheduer and others…in essence hating on CLEVELAND! I thought the show was called the Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show!!!!! Glad to hear somebody living up to the title of the show!

  26. Bull actually with a good take. Harden has a presence, aura physicality that Garland does not.

  27. I wouldn’t call last nights game domination. It was a 2pt victory. Neither teams were fully healthy. Nuggets missing Gordon and Cavs missing Mobley

  28. It definitely it is night and day between Harden and Darius. Hardens availability has always been far better than Darius. Darius missing time in the playoffs last season is one of the main reasons the Cavs got eliminated. Harden is also a far better playmakers and elevates his teammates. How many role players that played with Harden value increased considerably afterwards like Zubac, Capela, Gordon, Ariza, Anderson, and even stars like Kawhi was having his best offensive season ever this season. Embiid won an mvp playing next to Harden. I rest my case. As an individual scorer Harden is also significantly better than Garland rn. Maybe in another 1-3 seasons Harden will be worse than Garland, but rn Harden is significantly better player.

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