28-year-old guard Pat Spencer hit the court for 15 minutes in his fourth game of the 2024/25 NBA season. Not exactly a stat sheet stunner, but he made those minutes count big time. Still, the night belonged to disappointment. The Golden State Warriors? Beaten. Again. At home. By the OKC Thunder. Surprised? Not really. Frustrated? Absolutely.

With Stephen Curry sidelined by bilateral patellofemoral pain (soreness in both knees), Brandin Podziemski stepped up. But the real showstopper was the two-way player: Point guard Spencer, who had just over four minutes of playing time up until that point. He was called upon at the end of the bench to start the second quarter by Steve Kerr when the team was trailing their opponent by 16 points (39-23).

In just a few minutes, he packed a punch—6 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. Then, things got spicy. A non-call fired him up as he dashed to argue with officials. But the latter weren’t having it. Boom—a technical foul for the fiery 28-year-old (Meaning: A cool $2000 fine). But, don’t worry, Spencer has it covered!

Talking about the pending penalty payment, a media person enquired at the post-game presser, “Have any of your teammates volunteered to pay for the tech?” Pat responded: “I think a couple of guys. We’ll see where that goes. I’m not worried about it.” 

Nonetheless, the foul was a highly contentious call. Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Kerr didn’t hold back, and understandably so. The trio was fired up, and for good reason. A tech foul decision? Seriously? Without hesitation, they stormed over to the officials to make their feelings crystal clear.

Notably, Pat was quite a name in the NBA G League, where he played for the Warriors’ affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors. In the 2024-25 season alone, he tallied 10 points, 5 rebounds, 8 assists and 2 steals in 33.9 minutes of game play. So expectations were definitely high on Wednesday, and going by the looks of it, Kerr couldn’t be more ecstatic with heavy praise by the end of the day.

Talking about Pat’s 15 minutes of dominance, he said, “Fantastic. You love to see a guy come in and play with force and great energy and push the ball and find shooters. He just plays the game. I thought Pat changed the game…As soon as he got out there, the game finally opened up for us and we started to move the ball.”

“The guys’ a gamer…He’s a competitor, he’s an athlete, he has worked his tail off to get to this point. Incredible teammate and he’s a damn good player,” the HC concluded.

The sentiment was further echoed by DrayMagic, as he stated: “He’s just solid, man. He’s very opinionated in a good way. He’ll share things that he sees. Extremely smart, on and off the court. He’s just always steady. Gets his work in, doesn’t bother anyone, but is not afraid to say something, and I respect that. When guys are like that, you respect it. That’s what Pat’s meant for this team, and it’s good to see him get an opportunity tonight and take advantage.” 

But what was the star of the show’s take on all of it? Agreeing that the Warriors started “slow”, the former lacrosse player stated, “For me, if I’m coming off the bench, I got to be an energy guy for us. So, just getting downhill, finding some guys that can really shoot the ball. But, obviously, we want to get some clean looks. So, if I can get to the paint, collapse the defense, find him for a couple…getting him going. I think just having that pace, getting downhill. I like to get the ball out quick and run. And I think that’s kind of our identity. So, we came out flat, obviously spotted them too many points. But when I come in, I got to be an energy bug for us.”

Notably, Spencer got the ball in his hands when the Warriors were down by 18 a minute into the second quarter. He immediately handed it to Buddy Hield right into his shooting pocket for a 3-pointer that sprung an 11-0 run where Hield and Spencer connected for three. But the performance didn’t come that easily—especially with Spencer being noticeably absent from the court this season.

But in the players’ own words, “Just putting in the prep work every day. We have an incredible staff here….we have quite a big staff. So enough guys that want to help you get better and they want to get better as coaches. So, the prep work never fails. Just get in the gym.” And let us tell you, this is not the last we’re seeing of him. With a clear goal in mind, Spencer’s ready.

Despite the “satisfying” execution, he wished, “But I want the win, you know. Ultimately, we dropped three games in a row now. So it feels good to get minutes. But, you know, we’ve got, I think, we have a whole team that can play. So it might be right back out of the rotation. Might be in there next game. The goal for me when I come in is impact winning. And, unfortunately, we didn’t get that done tonight. But we’ll keep moving forward.”

Now talking about Spencer’s biggest supporter throughout the game, Curry and Green—their heated moment with the officials and Draymond’s lighthearted exchange with his ex-boss added a diversion to the disappointing game the Dubs played before the home crowd.

Pat Spencer’s unexpected tech foul found Draymond Green and Stephen Curry in frustration

The Golden State Warriors didn’t have Stephen Curry—their master formula for wins on the team on Wednesday. In his place, Brandin Podziemski and Pat Spencer held the reins. Meanwhile, Draymond Green’s defense fell short before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s offensive 35-point game. The Canadian PG single-handedly destroyed the Warriors with some timely contributions from Isiah Joe.

On the other hand, some drama unfolded following Spencer’s technical foul episode. Draymond Green was the first one to defend his teammate from the referees. Soon, Steph and head coach Steve Kerr joined Dr. Dunkenstein to argue with the officials about the technical foul assessed. Interestingly, the officials handed Draymond a technical foul for his argumentative stance, too.

But Green’s attention moved from Pat Spencer to the announcer’s desk. In a humorous exchange, the 34-year-old power forward reportedly requested his former boss/Warriors’ ex-general manager, Bob Myers, to pay his impending fine. While Green’s monologue was inaudible and the accuracy of the event cannot be independently verified as of now, a tweet captured the moment with the caption: “Draymond Green got a technical and started asking Bob Myers if he could cover the fine”. The general manager-turned-ESPN analyst, in turn, couldn’t help but laugh. And as we said before, this moment was just a diversion from the pressing matters in the game.

So, amidst the tough game and bitter loss, the Dubs players found a teeny tiny instance to laugh about. Meanwhile, it would be interesting to know who will become Pat Spencer’s anonymous fine payer. But this isn’t the moment to sit and think. Steve Kerr & Co. must work on bouncing back before the OKC Thunder completely takes over the West.