When the Golden State Warriors entered Cleveland on Saturday night without Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler, they needed a hero.

Somehow, the team found the most unlikely of heroes on a night they desperately needed one - Pat Spencer.

Against the Cavaliers, the third-year guard put up a career-high 19 points, 7 assists, and 4 rebounds on 58% shooting from the field. He led the Warriors in points against the Cavaliers, which is remarkable considering he averaged only 2.5 points last season.

Spencer's Reaction to the Performance

If there's one thing that Warriors fans learned about Spencer immediately, it's that he likes to compete. Nothing could have shown that better when he was trash-talking the Cavaliers crowd.

"I just like competing," Spencer said. " It can be cornhole, ping pong, you name it, I'm competing" Spencer said. "I've always been confident man, I just haven't had the chance to really settle in and get an opportunity to play extended minutes. I've talked about it before last year, my role was completely different. The goal for me was to come in and bring energy this year, they've allowed me to kind of orchestrate a little bit, have the ball in my hands."

Spencer Isn't Lacking Confidence

While no one was expecting Pat Spencer to lead the Warriors in scoring during a win against a healthy Cleveland Cavaliers team, he was certainly expecting it. With all the work Spencer put in, he's expecting results.

"I don't know if there's anything necessarily that's clicked, Spencer said. " It felt this way this summer. Felt like I had a really good camp. We've got pretty much the same crew back, so I knew the opportunity that was going to be really limited early on. I wouldn't say that I flipped a switch, it wasn't something over night that went off, I felt really good coming into this year, I put a lot work in this summer." 

Right now, the Golden State Warriors desperately need wins at any cost. While the team is shorthanded, they also only have a record of 12-12. It's a very critical period for the team where they can't afford to lose, and that's something Spencer knows very well himself.

“We’ll take any win we can get right now,” Spencer said. “Great energy in the locker room, just competing our butts off tonight. We're trying to weather the storm until we get healthy. But yeah, we're fired up.”