CLEVELAND — A few minutes after the injury-depleted Golden State Warriors finished off their biggest win of the season, Saturday’s 99-94 triumph over the Cleveland Cavaliers, several of the younger players who don’t usually get to see the floor much received a surprise ovation as they made their way back into the visitors’ locker room inside Rocket Arena.
They made the win happen on a night the Warriors played without Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry on the first night of another back-to-back in the third month of an up-and-down season. As the players who did play filed into the room, an audible roar went up in celebration of one of the most surprising wins of the season.
“It was great,” Warriors backup big man Trayce Jackson-Davis said. “All of our vets were cheering us on in the locker room, clapping, doing what they do basically. But that’s always been kind of our team camaraderie. We’ve always been together, even when things were going bad, we stick together. And so it felt good to get one because we needed it.”
While the Warriors certainly haven’t split apart during a rocky first two months of a season that started with championship expectations, there were early signs of tension within the group after a slow start. That tension subsided in San Antonio last month, thanks in large part to Stephen Curry’s greatness, but Saturday’s win is another step in the right direction for a team that remains confident that better days are ahead.
Pat Spencer, a 29-year-old two-way player, remains the story of the week as he continues to provide an unexpected offensive punch. The energetic guard finished with a career-high 19 points, three 3-pointers and seven assists in his first NBA start, but his performance was just one of many that keyed a critical win for the Warriors.
Gui Santos had 14 points off the bench, Quinten Post added 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocks, Jackson-Davis was a +15 and Buddy Hield had 13 points and seven rebounds, another solid game for the veteran after a slow start to the season. Gary Payton II chipped in with his usual solid defense, getting three steals. Even Brandin Podziemski, who was replaced in the starting lineup by Spencer, had a clutch basket down the stretch and finished with 10 points.
Saturday’s win is the type of collective triumph that can give any team momentum, but what makes it even more impressive is that the Warriors made it happen just a game after coming all the way back from 24 points down against the Philadelphia 76ers on the road Thursday night, but losing in a dramatic sequence at the buzzer.
“We’ve watched this three games in a row,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Where we’ve found a really good groove, played good two-way basketball, and obviously the last game was a gut punch … it feels great to see the guys respond and come up with a big win against a great team without so many of our guys.”
The Warriors had every excuse to punt this game with so many older players out, but they found a way to win. The first half was one of the ugliest 24 minutes, by both teams, in recent memory. The Warriors shot 38.4 percent from the field. They had lost the last 36 games in which they shot under 39 percent, according to Basketball Reference. But the fact that they were able to respond emotionally and close is a good sign for a team that has a large dose of both rest and practice days on the horizon after Sunday’s game at the Chicago Bulls.
“That game in Philly hurt us because we had the game in our hands, and last play (happened), tough loss,” Santos said. “The NBA’s about there’s one day you’re down, you lost the game at the last shot, and there is games that we win like that. So that’s the grace to be here.”
Gui Santos was one of several younger, unsung Warriors to carry the team past the Cavs. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)
Of course, even the good nights with this group still offer up questions about other issues that seem to linger just beneath the surface. On Saturday, it was forward Jonathan Kuminga’s continued struggles. He shot just 1-for-10 from the field and Kuminga is now 8-for-32 over his last three games since returning from a knee injury that kept him out of seven straight. Kerr did his best to deflect the question when asked what the Warriors can do to help him get out of the rut he’s been in.
“We’ve got 15 guys on this team, and every player goes through ups and downs all year,” Kerr said. “And we’re not going to make this a referendum on JK. We had a great win tonight. Some guys had big nights, some guys struggled a little bit. We won. That’s all that matters. That’s all that anyone cares about.”
In the short term, that’s true. But the takeaway from Saturday’s game is contingent on whether the Warriors can build off the momentum they created for themselves. If they keep getting that kind of production up and down the roster, they’ll finally catch the kind of rhythm they’ve been seeking all season. In order to do that, they need to help Kuminga find a level of consistency that has eluded him since the first two weeks of the year.
As the Warriors celebrated the kind of win that could be remembered later in the season, they did so with a renewed belief they still have the kind of talent that can fuel a turnaround when they get Curry and a full complement of players back over the next week. Kerr knows that a win like this can light a spark within his group. Now they just need to back it up Sunday and prove it.
“I think the older guys, they love when you get wins like this one,” Kerr said. “It galvanizes the group, everybody feels good, you move onto the next one, you try to go get another one, and this is how you build momentum with a win like this. But we’ve got to make sure we capitalize.”