How the Cleveland Cavaliers Survived Close Game Against Sacramento Kings

The Cleveland Cavaliers welcomed in the Sacramento Kings for a Friday night matchup. And it was a successful one as they came away with a 113-107 win improving to 26-20 on the season.

Donovan Mitchell led the way with 33 points, eight assists, and five rebounds. Evan Mobley followed up with a double-double racking up 29 points, 13 rebounds, seven assists, and four blocks. While Jaylon Tyson finished with 17 points, seven rebounds, and two assists.

It was quite the commanding 16-2 run from the Cavaliers to start the game. In just about four minutes, it felt like the Kings couldn’t get anything to fall for them.

But it didn’t take long for Sacramento to fight back as they responded with a 18-9 run silencing the home crowd. It was all of a sudden just a five point lead for Cleveland at 25-20. The quarter finished even worse though as the Kings had things tied up at 35 a piece at the end of one. It was all thanks to the bench scoring 33 of the first 35. Really thanks to Domantas Sobonis, Dennis Schroeder, and Malik Monk for all not being in the starting lineup.

Things would remain very even throughout the first part of the second quarter as the Cavs held a 55-54 lead as halftime drew closer. But it was clear that Mobley was in store for a huge night early on. Besides the usual production from Mitchell, the 2024-2025 DPOY put on when he needed to scoring 19 points in just the first half.

Cleveland once again ended the quarter on a bad note as Sacramento walked away with a 71-68 halftime lead. It was a very weird feeling amongst the home crowd as more fans were just shaking their heads instead of booing and rightfully so. The Kings were shooting a hot 60% from deep in the half and with the ball movement they had going, there was a cause for concern to say the least.

Jaylon Tyson steps up again

It was still a very even game coming out of the half. But the Cavs finally found some momentum thanks to a Tyson takeover and took a 87-82 lead halfway through the third quarter.

Third time was the charm though as Cleveland finally ended a quarter on a good note. They were able to put together a 15-11 run to take a 102-93 lead into the fourth with them. De’Andre Hunter finally got things going for the bench side of things which was much needed.

Sacramento refused to go away as they went on a 11-4 run to begin the fourth quarter, cutting their deficit down to 106-104. With just under 9 minutes to play, Atkinson was forced to use a timeout.

The Kings kept up with the pace, and with 4:39 left to play, the Cavs had just a 113-112 lead. It was a great matchup to watch between Mobley and Sabonis who dominated all game long as both had double-doubles on the night.

Mitchell knew exactly what time it was as he led the way to finish the game out on a strong note. Cleveland came away with a 123-118 victory as it was a tougher game than expected. The Cavaliers next play in Orlando Saturday night.