Pat Spencer has delivered his third impressive performance in a row and this time in his first career NBA start, helping the Golden State Warriors to their most unlikely win of the season against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena on Saturday.
Playing without both Curry brothers, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Al Horford and De'Anthony Melton, the incredibly short-handed Warriors somehow produced a gutsy 99-94 victory where Spencer again led the way with a new career-high in scoring.
Pat Spencer leads the way again to leave Cavaliers shocked
Spencer has made a name for himself and become Golden State's latest sensation even despite losses over the last two games, but this time his output was capped off with victory and ended with the two-way contracted guard waving goodbye to the Cleveland crowd as he calmly sank two free-throws in the final seconds.
Those free-throws gave Spencer a career-high 19 points to go with four rebounds and seven assists in the five-point win, with the 29-year-old shooting 7-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-4 from 3-point range in a little less than 30 minutes.
Pat Spencer got his career high in points then told Cavs fans to go home 😂 pic.twitter.com/qJ0klhKW5K
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 7, 2025
After scoring just first-quarter 10 points in Thursday's loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State again came out dry with only 12 in the first 12 minutes against the Cavaliers. Fortunately the hosts were just as sluggish offensively, meaning the Warriors could quickly turnaround a six-point deficit into a nine-point half-time lead following a 33-18 second-quarter.
Golden State retained the lead over the entire second-half, but things got tight again down the stretch and left Donovan Mitchell with a potential game-tying 3-pointer to force overtime. Thankfully for the Warriors, Gui Santos' flying contest was enough to force a miss and Spencer was fouled on the rebound attempt.
Santos was significant for the Warriors with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists, while Buddy Hield added 13 points and seven rebounds on 3-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Quinten Post narrowly missed his first career double-double finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds while adding three assists.
Post's defense was again a standout, recording three blocks and keeping star big man Evan Mobley to just 8-of-19 shooting from the floor. It was that end of the floor that delivered Golden State victory, having kept Cleveland to a paltry 34.6% shooting from the floor and 23.8% from 3-point range.
The Warriors have fought back to a .500 record and should have a heap of veteran reinforcements for Sunday's second night of a back-to-back against the Chicago Bulls.