The Cleveland Cavaliers lost their first game in six tries. The Phoenix Suns took them to school 126-113.

All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.

16 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 8 turnovers

I don’t care to pile on Mitchell for a bad performance when he’s been carrying this team for most of the season. But hey, he stunk tonight. This was a disaster from the jump, with Mitchell turning it over seven times in the first half alone.

Grade: F

12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 23 minutes

Allen might have had the best game of anyone on the roster. And he really only played well for the first half. After that, it was out of his control. He set solid screens, finished at the rim, and grabbed rebounds. But the little things aren’t as important when the rest of the game is going catastrophically wrong.

This probably would have been a much better Allen performance if the game was close enough for him to play more than 23 minutes.

Grade: B+

16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists

Tyson was fine enough. He helped steady the ship in the first half with his shot-making, and he finished as an efficient 7-13 from the floor. The Cavs just didn’t have enough firepower tonight for this to make a difference.

Grade: B+

9 points, 6 assists, 6 rebound, 2 steals

We’re getting most of the positives out of the way early. Bryant was a standout from the first half, bringing some much-needed floor spacing and anchoring the defense. He didn’t play much outside of that before garbage time.

Grade: A+

17 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals, 3 turnovers

Hunter shot 7-15 tonight, which is pretty solid considering how poor he’s shot for most of the season. That’s a good sign. So is 3 steals. But the rest of his game was fairly ugly tonight. Hunter had a few brutal-looking turnovers.

Grade: C-

14 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals

This was a helter-skelter performance from Tomlin. Not in a good way.

He was out of position on defense and didn’t have the floor spacing or ball handling abilities to help on offense.

And for future reference, I’m not judging how anyone performed in garbage time. I’m only considering the minutes that mattered. Because otherwise, Tomlin was pretty sweet in the final five minutes. I just don’t think that’s very important.

Grade: C-

3 points, 4 rebounds

Wade hit his first shot of the night and then went 0-2 the rest of the way. There’s not much else to say.

Grade: C-

10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists

Merrill resorted to some incredibly difficult three-point attempts tonight in his best effort to jumpstart the Cavs offense. He just didn’t have it. Merrill finished 2-7 from deep and 4-12 from the floor. We respect him for trying.

Grade: C-

3 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers

The Cavs turned to Ball for some backup gaurd minutes because, well, they didn’t have anyone else. The story was the same as it has been all season.

He’s a non-threat to score (1-8 from the floor tonight) and just an OK defender. This wasn’t Ball’s fault, but he didn’t help much either.

Grade: D–

4 points, 5 assists, 3 turnovers

I still have faith in Proctor as a guard with good size, a nice three-point jumper and quality defensive instincts. But he looked like a second round draft pick tonight. That will happen from time to time.

Grade: D–