Category: Basketball

The Knicks (16-7) defeated the Orlando Magic (14-10) by a final score of 106-100 on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

Here are the key takeaways...

-- The Knicks were without Karl-Anthony Towns, as the big man was ruled out before tipoff due to calf tightness. Towns, who went for 35 points and 18 rebounds against Charlotte on Wednesday night, is the team’s leading rebounder and second-leading scorer, so the Knicks were obviously missing a very important piece.

With Towns out, Mitchell Robinson started alongside the usual starting group.

-- Franz Wagner, Orlando’s leading scorer on the season averaging 23.4 points per game, went down hard in the first quarter. On an alley-oop attempt, Wagner was fouled by Ariel Hukporti and landed awkwardly, appearing to injure his left knee or ankle. Wagner had to be helped to the locker room, putting no weight on his left leg. 

The Knicks then suffered an injury scare of their own in the third quarter, when Miles McBride went down and ended up limping off the floor. Shortly after the game, the Knicks announced he hurt his left ankle and they would share more information on his status Monday. McBride, who has been an absolute spark for the Knicks this season, had four points and two assists in 21 minutes.

-- Coming off a 33-point night against Utah,Jalen Brunson led the charge for the Knicks once again. Playing at an MVP-level this season, Brunson had 16 points and five assists in the first quarter alone, attacking the rim and playing well in the mid range. The Knicks led by four points at the end of the first quarter. After getting a rest to start the quarter, Brunson ended up going scoreless in the second frame, as both teams dialed up their defense.

After a back-and-forth first half, the Knicks started the second half on a 9-0 run and went on to outscore the Magic 28-18 in the quarter, with Brunson scoring 10 points. 

The All-Star guard finished with 30 points and nine assists.

-- OG Anunoby, playing in his second game back from injury, once again had his minutes limited. But when he was on the floor, he was in All-Star form, finishing with 21 points, seven rebounds, and three assists in just under 28 minutes. His fourth three of the game came early in the fourth quarter, pushing the Knicks' lead to 16 points. Anunoby was a difference-maker on both sides of the floor. 

--The story of the game for Orlando, even before Wagner left the game, was attacking the Knicks in transition. Orlando players beat the Knicks down the floor after made baskets multiple times early on, but the Knicks' defense adjusted and stifled the Magic, holding them to 38.3 percent shooting on the game. Jalen Suggs, Desmond Bane, Anthony Black, and Paolo Banchero all finished in double digits, but it wasn't enough.

-- With Towns out and Robinson dealing with some foul trouble, Josh Hart stepped up and was all over the glass. The veteran finished the game with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Hukporti also gave the Knicks some strong minutes off the bench, finishing with six points, seven rebounds, and three blocks.

-- The Knicks have now won eight of their last nine games, and are now 2.5 games behind Detroit for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Game MVP

Anunoby, whose two-way play, even in limited minutes, played a huge role in the New York victory.

Highlights

JALEN BRUNSONNNNN pic.twitter.com/XqzC3dDpwG

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 7, 2025

hart on a heater ❤️‍🔥

15 PTS | 10 REB pic.twitter.com/hiq19dDpM5

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 7, 2025

cap getting what he wants 😤

29 PTS | 9 AST pic.twitter.com/JSp8YTnjxn

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 7, 2025

Upcoming schedule

The Knicks will take on the Raptors in Toronto on Tuesday night at 8:30 p.m.

Jonathan Kuminga's DNP vs. Bulls is latest bump in up-and-down Warriors tenure originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The writing might have been on the wall, but it’s still wild to see. 

Warriors coach Steve Kerr used 10 players in the first quarter Sunday against the Chicago Bulls. Jonathan Kuminga wasn’t one of them. Gary Payton II started the second quarter and made it 11 Warriors to see the floor, the same number that saw time in the first half. Kuminga still wasn’t one of them. 

Kuminga rode the bench the entire second half, too. The 23-year-old who signed a two-year, $48.5 million contract in restricted free agency to return to the Warriors a day into training camp received his first healthy DNP-CD (Did Not Play — Coach’s Decision) of the 2025-26 NBA season in a 123-91 wire-to-wire road win against the Chicago Bulls.

“Just got to keep going, just like everybody else who’s in this position,” Kerr said after the game. “And it happens to everybody, pretty much, other than the stars. Guys come in and out of the rotation depending on who’s available, how the team’s playing.”

There were several factors that Kerr went into about why Kuminga was leapfrogged in the rotation Sunday. From a positional standpoint, he mentioned wanting to give more minutes to Gui Santos after the impact he made the previous two games. Santos was a plus-15 in 11 1/2 minutes on Thursday, and scored 14 points, including five clutch points in the fourth quarter, on Saturday. 

Kerr did not elaborate about his conversation with Kuminga on his decision to keep him out of the rotation against the Bulls.

“All that stuff is private,” Kerr said.

Kuminga spoke with reporters in Chicago for a little more than five minutes after the Warriors’ win. There wasn’t any animosity towards Kerr. Kuminga chose a mature approach, saying “we don’t have any problems,” and noted that he’ll work every day to be ready for his next opportunity. 

“As long as things are working out and we’re winning, I don’t see a point of switching anything or changing,” Kuminga said. “Whenever my number gets called, I’ll be ready. But I don’t see the point [of changing]. We’re doing good. We’ve been doing good, things are working really well. 

“I don’t see a point of taking certain people out of the rotation when they’re playing well and things are going good right now. I don’t see a point.”

A numbers crunch was sure to come Sunday in Chicago. Along with the absence of Steph Curry, who didn’t join the team on the three-game road trip as he continues to rehab a quad contusion, the Warriors on Saturday also were without Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Al Horford, De’Anthony Melton and Seth Curry. Only 10 Warriors were healthy, and all 10 played. 

Kuminga was one of them, and he was in the starting lineup after coming off the bench his previous four games. But he scored just four points on 1-of-10 shooting in 21 1/2 minutes. Kuminga missed his first seven shot attempts and was held scoreless in the first half. 

“Some of the guys that played tonight aren’t going to play tomorrow,” Kerr said Saturday night after the Warriors’ short-handed win against the Cleveland Cavaliers. “That’s got to be OK. For them, for everybody. It’s what it takes to be a great team. You have to be able to sacrifice for the good of the group. Some nights are yours, some nights aren’t.

“Fortunately, we’ve got really good guys one our team and they’re committed to each other, and I feel confident going forward we’ll have a lot of guys who are going to contribute and every night will be a little different.” 

Despite being extremely depleted, Warriors had their best feel-good win of the season Saturday by beating the Cavaliers on the road. 

Then came the Warriors’ reinforcements. Butler and Melton returned Sunday against the Bulls. A healthy Seth Curry was back but also received a DNP-CD. His older brother is expected to return Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center, as are Green and Horford.

Kuminga played nine minutes and 18 seconds in the second half Saturday, and a lowly two and a half minutes in the fourth quarter. His role being reduced in the more important parts of the game has been a recent trend. He sat the entire fourth quarter of their 12-point loss against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, and again Thursday in their one-point last-second loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. 

As Kuminga watched the entire fourth quarter from the bench against the Thunder, his agent, Aaron Turner, posted his disapproval of Kerr’s decision on X. He also reposted somebody else who was against the decision as well. 

Restricted free agency between Kuminga and the Warriors dragged to the very last minute. And it didn’t just affect him. The Warriors were stuck in limbo and weren’t signing other players until knowing what the final number on Kuminga’s contract was going to be. In the end, Kuminga came back, but not on the contract he expected going into the summer, and the final deal didn’t include his preferred player option. 

Turner took a public approach to Kuminga’s restricted free agency and joined multiple outlets to speak on the situation, including NBC Sports Bay Area. 

“Can he be the player he wants to be here, right now, with this roster composition? No. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to win and he’s not willing to sacrifice for the group,” Turner said to myself and Monte Poole on the “Dubs Talk” podcast in September. 

Earlier that same day, Turner was on 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny & Guru” and hit on where things stood between Kuminga and his coach. 

“The last point where we ended with Steve was, I can’t play this guy big minutes with what I have now. I don’t think that can’t evolve or can’t change but that’s where we are right now, until we see differently. That’s got to be the worst sales pitch to a 20-plus million dollar free agent in the history of basketball,” Turner said. 

Kuminga began the 2025-26 NBA season doing all the things the Warriors asked from him and was a big reason why they started the campaign 4-1. The Warriors then went 2-5 over their next seven games, all with Kuminga in the starting lineup. He was dropped to a reserve role in San Antonio on Nov. 12 and left the game at halftime with knee soreness before missing the next seven to bilateral patellar tendonitis. 

Before Sunday night’s DNP, Kuminga has played four games since returning from his knee issues and has averaged 7.8 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while shooting 30 percent from the field and 30.8 percent on 13 3-point attempts. Kuminga in those four games has as many turnovers (eight) as assists.

The Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline now is less than two months away. The first day Kuminga can be traded is Jan. 15, and Sunday’s healthy and loud DNP is the latest development in a rocky relationship.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

What we learned as Jimmy Butler's return fuels Warriors' road win vs. Bulls originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

• BOX SCORE

Maybe it was knowledge that they would have Monday and Tuesday to themselves, but the Warriors on Sunday delivered one of their zestiest performances of the 2025-26 NBA season.

After an inspiring victory Saturday night in Cleveland, they floated into Chicago and cruised to a tip-to-buzzer 123-91 triumph over the Bulls at United Center. It was the first game this season where the Warriors led the entire contest.

The Warriors moved back above .500 (13-12) behind Jimmy Butler’s all-around play, with an efficient 19 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals.

Six other Warriors scored in double figures, led by Brandin Podziemski coming off the bench to put up a game-high 21 points. Quinten Post finished with 19, De’Anthony Melton had 13, Pat Spencer scored 12, with Moses Moody and Will Richard each totaling 11.

The Warriors poured in 22 3-pointers, the third time this season they’ve drained 20 or more in a game. They dominated the glass, outrebounding Chicago 51-38, more than offsetting the 21 points they gave the Bulls off 17 turnovers.

The Warriors, whose 25 games are tied for the league high, return home with an opportunity to get healthy and reset. Their next game is Friday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and that will the first of two games over a 10-day span. 

Here are three observations from the finale of a three-game road swing through the Eastern Conference:

Jimmy Grabs His Cape

The Warriors maintained a double-digit lead from the final minutes of the first quarter, hiking the advantage as high as 24, before the Bulls rallied late, going on a 17-1 run to pull within eight (87-79) with 11: 24 remaining.

There was no Stephen Curry to stop the onslaught. There was no Draymond Green to cool Chicago’s offense. There was no Al Horford, either. All three were out with injuries.

To whom would the Warriors turn to restore order? Butler. 

Clearly sensing a threat, he reached for his cape, scoring eight of his points during a 16-2 run that closed the door and pave the way for Golden State to outscore the Bulls 36-12 over the final 11 minutes.

Butler did so much work, so quickly, that he managed to post a plus-16 in five fourth-quarter minutes before taking a richly deserved seat with the Warriors up by 27 with a 6:31 to play.

Hello, Chicago!

After introducing themselves during the opening tip, the Warriors immediately made themselves at home inside the United Center, racing out to leads of 11-2, 23-10 and, by the end of the first quarter, 38-25.

Showing no ill effect from their late-night arrival from Cleveland, the Warriors made six of their first eight shots and nine of their first 12. They shot 68.2 percent in the quarter, including 61.5 from deep.

After losing the tip against Bulls big man Nikola Vučević, Post made three consecutive 3-pointers within the first five minutes to finish the quarter with nine points. Six different Warriors drained triples in the first 12 minutes.

In another show of early energy, Golden State outrebounded the Bulls 12-6 in the quarter and limited them to 44-percent shooting from the field, including 30 percent from beyond the arc.

Latest Chapter In The Book Of Kuminga

Eleven different Warriors participated in one of Golden State’s most decisive wins this season, and none of them was Jonathan Kuminga.

One night after making his first start in 25 days in a win over the Cavaliers in Cleveland, Kuminga never left the bench in Chicago. He was not listed on the injury report, so this DNP-CD makes a curious statement.

Kuminga, inconsistent all season, didn’t exactly help his cause in Cleveland. Making his first start since returning last Tuesday after missing seven games with an ankle sprain, he grabbed seven rebounds but scored only four points on 1-of-10 shooting from the field, including 0 of 3 from distance.

In the three games since his return, Kuminga is averaging 7.0 points per game, shooting 25 percent (8 of 32) from the field, including beyond the arc. 

Though Kuminga won’t be trade eligible until Jan. 15, it will be very interesting to see how the Warriors manage him over the coming weeks.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Why Draymond Green claims Giannis Antetokounmpo trade would be hard to pull off originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks could be parting ways, as ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday, citing sources, that the nine-time NBA All-Star and his agent are in talks with the franchise about Milwaukee’s future.

Charania’s report came after Antetokounmpo appeared to have removed Bucks-related posts and mentions from his Instagram account.

Warriors icon Draymond Green discussed the situation and explained why Antetokounmpo would be a challenging player to center a possible trade around in the latest edition of his “Draymond Green Show” podcast.

“We all know that Giannis wants to compete at the highest level,” Green said. “A lot of people made a lot of noise about him deleting all Milwaukee Bucks references off of his Instagram account. If you’re Giannis and you’re trying to press the team to do something, those are the types of things that you would do in order to make the team realize, ‘I’m not happy … It’s going public now. Y’all better figure it out.’

“What I will say is, it’s not the easiest to trade someone that makes $50 million, because, in most cases, you usually have to depete your whole team, just to even make the salaries work; it limits the amount of teams that Giannis can go to. He’ll have a list of clubs that he’d be comfortable going to, that he’ll share with the team, and I think they’ll try to make it happen.”

Antetokounmpo is on the books for $54.13 million during the 2025-26 NBA season and is under contract through the 2027 campaign. As Green explained, that number isn’t easy to work with — or around.

The Warriors, for example, could offer the paint-dominant Antetokounmpo one of the more intriguing on-court fits across the league next to the floor-spacing Steph Curry. But considering Golden State already is paying Curry and Jimmy Butler over $50 million each, it would be extremely challenging to deal for Antetokounmpo.

However, the financials would be complex for most teams.

Antetokounmpo has spent his entire 13-year NBA career with the Bucks. But with Milwaukee sitting at 11th in the Eastern Conference as of Sunday afternoon, it’s clear the franchise is a shell of its 2021 finals-winning self.

Green believes the Bucks would “try” to fulfill a potential trade request from Antetokounmpo, should he desire an exit. Regardless, any potential deal involving the two-time NBA MVP would be a blockbuster.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Warriors provide encouraging update on Steph Curry's quad injury rehab originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry’s return to the Warriors might be right around the corner.

Golden State’s superstar point guard, who has been sidelined five games (including Sunday vs. the Chicago Bulls) with a left quadriceps contusion sustained in the 104-100 loss to the Houston Rockets on Nov. 26, is progressing in his rehab and could return to game action later this week.

The Warriors provided an official update on Curry’s rehab on Sunday, stating that the 37-year-old is making “good progress” and has started individual on-court workouts in the Bay Area and could participate in segments of the team’s practice back home on Wednesday.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr shared a brief update on Curry prior to his team’s 99-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday and stated that Curry returning for Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chase Center, which the team initially was targeting, still is realistic.

The Warriors are 2-2 in the four games Curry has missed with the quad injury, and with numerous other Golden State players dealing with injuries, the four days off after Sunday’s game come at a good time.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

The murmurs surrounding a potential Giannis Antetokounmpo trade have heated up in recent days, which has naturally thrust the Knicks — now at 15-7 and winners of seven of their last 10 — into the rumor mill. 

The Mecca of Basketball is reportedly atop the perennial MVP candidate’s preference list, so the Knicks should have a fair shot at the star if they put together their best offer, the question is should they?

The case for trading for Giannis

Despite having seven different champions in seven different seasons, one thing stayed constant about modern NBA champions: employing a generational superstar. Now while Jalen Brunson deserves every superlative in the book, including MVP candidate, Antetokounmpo is undoubtedly in another tier of greatness.

For reference, Giannis is averaging 29.9 points, 11.8 rebounds and six assists on 57.7 percent shooting from the field — over the last seven seasons. He was off to an even hotter start this year before injury.

He’s only five seasons removed from an NBA Championship and Finals MVP, and another year from back-to-back MVPs. He’d have more hardware if not for other rising stars and the Bucks roster slowly disintegrating around him.

So it’s easy to imagine this peak-Shaq-esque production in an improved context and not really gripe much about the cost. Care about losing Karl-Anthony Towns and you’re replacing him with an equally threatening scorer, care about losing OG Anunoby and you’ve replaced him with another Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner. 

A Giannis trade will likely have to cost two of them or other key rotation pieces, along with draft capital, a predictable and necessary pill to swallow to pair him with Brunson. Doing so maximizes your championship ceiling, which has been the ultimate goal of the Leon Rose era in New York.

Concerns about filling out the rest of the roster can be addressed at the trade deadline and by calling on current fringe rotation guys to step up. Last year’s Thunder were an aberration with their impressive depth, built up by years of tanking and trading — most recent champs grinded it out with a core eight-man rotation. 

Those worried about Antetokounmpo’s fit with a smaller guard after the Damian Lillard combination blew up should note that Brunson’s younger and much more adept at screening and being a threat off the ball. Lillard also needed a year to adjust to his new surroundings, and the Bucks went through a midseason firing trying to right the ship.

The Knicks have a far stronger foundation to build a winner around Brunson and Antetokounmpo, with even their ill-fitting assets being valuable enough to swap if need be. You can nitpick fit and asset management to death, or you can trade for a top-five talent in the league and live with the results.   

The case against trading for Giannis

Unfortunately, the concerns with an Antetokounmpo fit are more than nitpicky. Almost any variation of this trade, save for moving Brunson, leaves more basketball questions than answers.

Dealing Towns leaves New York’s center rotation down to an ailing Mitchell Robinson, Ariel Hukporti and Trey Jemison III. Outside of the overall talent, none of them can space the floor for Antetokounmpo, a long-standing must out of his frontcourt mate.

Antetokounmpo never spent more time at the five than he had to in his youth, and likely won’t want to do it more now that he’s past 30. Assuming the trade is Towns and a wing, you could trade one of Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges for a five to help smooth out the starters, but it’s impossible to ignore how thin the rotation looks after all these moves.

If the Knicks deal “Wingstop” for Antetokounmpo and manage to keep Towns, they’ll be in a similar glut on the wing, forced to rely on Hart, their guards, potentially Kyle Kuzma, Mohamed Diawara and whatever a potential Robinson trade could bring. Even if that’s addressed, the on-court chemistry may take longer to materialize than people expect.

Towns hasn’t found his full rhythm in this Mike Brown offense yet. How would that go with a second alpha in front of him on the touch ladder? Defensively, would he still be able to anchor things come playoff time without the strong defensive depth once surrounding him on this team?

There’s also more to the Brunson-Antetokounmpo question than simply dismissing the Lillard situation at face. Antetokounmpo captured his title alongside two big guards in Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday that ran a ton of pick-and-roll with him as both handlers and screeners.

Even with his off-ball game, it’s not clear Brunson can replicate that formula, especially making the tough passes to Antetokounmpo when crowded on screens at his size. Those were also relatively low-usage guards that could defer to Giannis at any time, while Brunson, though flexible, primarily needs his hands on the ball.

Finally, the cost of the trade is going to eat the Knicks' present and future chances of winning, for only a small bump to their championship ceiling. The Spurs and anybody with a similar asset pile is ready to offer up the boat for Giannis, and to match New York will have to part with every remaining scrap of its draft capital and rotational depth. 

You do that for a sure thing, and while Antetokounmpo is as close as you’re getting, he’s 31 years old with a battery of injuries down his resume and a ton of questions to answer once he arrives. This doesn’t even get to the opportunity cost of such a trade.

Right now, the Knicks are a favorite to get out of the East, and few of their counterparts have the juice for an Antetokounmpo trade. That means New York can stand by, count its wins, watch him likely leave the conference and only have to worry about a bunch of teams they’ve already bounced out of the playoffs in years prior. 

Why sacrifice that, and this impressive core that’s coming together, in a midseason blockbuster trade? The Knicks are in contention mode, not desperation mode, and this move reeks more of the latter than the former.

It took nearly 40 minutes of the Knicks’ 146-112 win against the Utah Jazz on Friday night for Guerschon Yabusele to see the floor. 

The forward was able to cobble together a season-high 11 points in just nine-plus minutes of an already decided game. But the final quarter signified that Yabusele is far away from the role he was expected to assume this season. The return of OG Anunoby from a nine-game absence in the 34-point drubbing pushed Yabusele further out of the rotation. Rookie second-round draft pick Mohamed Diawara also saw minutes over the forward in the first half.

The Knicks signed Yabusele to a two-year, $11.3 million deal with a player option in the second year, using the taxpayer midlevel exception. The move was an attempt to bolster a bench that finished last in the NBA in scoring last season. 

Though Yabusele was supposed to be a key factor in New York’s bench redemption arc this season, the free agent acquisition has been left behind in head coach Mike Brown’s lineups. Through 21 games, Yabusele is averaging 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds in 10.1 minutes. Those numbers are a far cry from last year, when the forward put up 11.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in 70 games.

As New York has gone to a smaller lineup, Yabusele hasn’t played more than about 17 minutes in a game all season. His stints on the floor are often a quick three or four minutes before being subbed out.

Yabusele’s role on the floor is much more muted than it was in Philadelphia. Due to a series of injuries that limited 76ers centers Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond to 19 and 40 games played, respectively, last season, Yabusele was given plenty of time at the center. According to Basketball Reference, 73 percent of Yabusele’s minutes with the 76ers last season were at the five. 

With the Knicks, that number has dropped to 40 percent. Karl-Anthony Towns starts at center and Mitchell Robinson usually takes up the other minutes at the five. When Robinson has sat, second-year big Ariel Hukporti has received playing time. Brown explained earlier this week that Yabusele being at the four has limited chances for him to be used as a screener.

Yabusele is like a locomotive train. When he’s given momentum on a drive, he’s hard for defenders to slow down. As the five, Yabusele was involved more often as a screener with the 76ers. It gave him the opportunity to rumble into the paint for drives or to post up against smaller defenders on switches. 

Ways to generate offense

In New York, Yabusele has been nailed to the three-point line as a floor spacer, with 65.6 percent of his attempts coming from beyond the arc, up from 48.7 percent in 2024-25. Though he’s getting up threes, Yabusele is shooting a paltry 27.5 percent from the three-point line. Mixing up drives and shots in the paint would help get him in a better flow. Last year, Yabusele had 44 dunks, and this year, he has just one slam.

Playing in transition could also be helpful for Yabusele. According to NBA Stats, 12.4 percent of Yabusele’s points came off fast break opportunities with Philadelphia. This year, that figure has dropped to 4.8 percent. Though Brown has talked about the Knicks playing faster, they are currently ranked 26th in pace. 

The Knicks brought the Frenchman in for offense, and if he’s not contributing, it’s hard to envision him seeing much more time on the floor. The Knicks have more depth than last year, but there’s a lack of size on the perimeter. Reserves Miles McBride, Jordan Clarkson, Landry Shamet and Tyler Kolek are all shorter than 6-foot-4. 

Eastern Conference foes like the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons have length across the entire roster, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Yabusele could find his footing later in the season. But so far, the early returns are a concern.

Pat Spencer explains how his old lacrosse stardom helps NBA career with Warriors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Pat Spencer was a lacrosse superstar before becoming the two-way Warriors guard that Dub Nation loves today.

Over four seasons between 2016-19 at Loyola University Maryland, the former attackman set the record for assists at the Division I level with 231 and won the Tewaaraton Award — which is equivalent to the Heisman Trophy — as a senior. It wasn’t until Spencer transferred to Northwestern for the 2019-20 campaign that he prioritized basketball.

Spencer finished with a career-high 19 points with seven assists in Golden State’s short-handed 99-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday at Rocket Arena. NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke, alongside Zena Keita and Festus Ezeli, asked Spencer if his lacrosse experience helps his NBA court vision during “Warriors Postgame Live.”

“It definitely does [help],” Spencer told Burke, Ezeli and Keita. “[I] just feel like there’s a real overlap between the two sports. I’m a believer in being an athlete first. Ultimately, my focus is going to be [on being] a team player, pass-first and [to] get other guys involved and find a way to help the team win. If it means scoring a couple of big buckets, great; if it means I score zero points, I’m truly happy to do it.”

Spencer has done an excellent job of making the right reads within his expanding opportunities during the 2025-26 NBA season. Specifically, he is taking smart shots when open and creating opportunities for teammates when he isn’t. 

Saturday’s win was Spencer’s debut as a starter in coach Steve Kerr’s lineup. And the 29-year-old played with the same ball control he possessed as a lacrosse attackman.

Considering Kerr said that Spencer is “that motherf–ker,” it’s clear that the three-year NBA veteran’s lacrosse experience is helping him see the floor.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

James Harden became the 10th highest scorer in NBA history as the LA Clippers were beaten 109-106 by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Starting the night 11th on the all-time list, Harden passed Carmelo Anthony's total of 28,289 points in the third quarter at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Harden finished with 34 points, taking his career total to 28,303 - 293 behind Shaquille O'Neal in ninth.

"It's a blessing - a testament to the work I've put in," said 36-year-old Harden.

"It's an honour, especially with somebody like Carmelo, who's done so much greatness for this league."

Naz Reid scored a three-pointer with 13 seconds left to give the Timberwolves a fifth straight win and condemn the Clippers to a seventh defeat in eight games.

Julius Randle scored 24 points and Reid 19 off the bench for the Timberwolves, who are sixth in the Western Conference. The Clippers are second bottom.

Warriors upset Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a 99-94 home defeat by the Golden State Warriors.

Without Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green and Al Horford, the Warriors gave Pat Spencer his NBA debut at Rocket Arena.

The 29-year-old, who came through the development league four years ago, scored 19 points and landed a three-pointer with 72 seconds remaining to open up a five-point lead.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said: "It's fun to watch a guy who has had to fight for everything finally get his moment and not only seize it but grab it by the neck. This guy is a competitor."

The Warriors are eighth in the Western Conference and the Cavaliers eighth in the West.

• NBA results & fixtures