Draymond Green has a message for Yaxel Lendeborg: don’t back down from Luka Doncic when the Golden State Warriors next face the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Warriors rookie had a fiery run-in with the Lakers star during Wednesday’s season opener, reigniting a feud that began in the preseason. Lendeborg was hit with a technical foul for talking trash to Doncic after a near-clean block, but the friction only escalated from there. Doncic continued to chirp at Lendeborg throughout the game — even from the bench — and capped off his night with a gesture toward Lendeborg after drilling a buzzer-beating half-court shot to put the Lakers up 66–52 at halftime.
Green has urged his rookie to go at Doncic again when the Lakers and Warriors face next on Oct. 30.
Warriors Back Yaxel Lendeborg
“Everybody’s going to be like, ‘Man you shouldn’t talk to Luka.’ And I disagree with that s**t one thousand percent,” Green said of Lendeborg, via ESPN’s Anthony Slater.
“…If he bust your a**, you play him again three more times, and you go back at his a** again,” Green continued. “In this league, they say you should respect certain guys, but I ain’t come into this league like that. You earn respect.”
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Green was referencing the theory that Doncic plays better when opponents trash-talk him — a lesson the Suns learned the hard way in 2022. Lendeborg found himself in a similar trap on Wednesday, when Doncic caught fire following their exchange.
“Everyone will say the rookie learned his lesson. What he learn? The next time he see him, go at his a** again,” Green urged Lendeborg.
Luka Doncic vs Yaxel Lendeborg
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also backed Lendeborg, and felt that Doncic goaded the rookie into losing his composure at various points of Wednesday’s game.
“He kind of lured him in a little bit,” Kerr said of Doncic.
“I thought the single technical was ridiculous. They were jawing at each other. I think it was the words Yaxel used that got him the T. But then Luka makes the half-court shot and gets in his face. That should be a tech.”
After the game, neither Lendeborg nor Doncic held back in their post-game comments.
“I had a lot of respect for him [because] I didn’t really watch the NBA much,” Lendeborg said. “I just watched highlights and seen him kill people. But being in it firsthand and seeing all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect.”
“You get the foul call. Congratulations, bro,” Lendeborg continued. “Then you talk to me like you did something great. C’mon, dog. That s— is weak. It kind of threw me off because I have so much respect for him. Gone, man. Gone.”
Doncic said of the incident: “He was talking crazy. But I wasn’t trying to talk back. This season, I’m not trying to get techs.”
Warriors Star Keeps it Real on Luka Doncic-Yaxel Lendeborg Beef