Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg may have taken a subtle dig at Los Angeles Lakers‘ Luka Doncic after his career-best outing on Sunday.
When Lendeborg sank his sixth three-pointer with 6:36 remaining, he stretched the Warriors’ lead to a comfortable 111–92. The bucket gave him 37 points and a real shot at reaching 40 — or even 50 — a rare milestone for a rookie. Eager to see him hit the mark, his teammates kept feeding him the ball. Lendeborg obliged, though he would miss his final three attempts from deep (at 4:59, 3:16, and 2:24).
For a moment, Lendeborg caught himself gunning for shots or “stat-chasing” and not playing his game. He admitted didn’t like the feeling.
“I’ve never been a stat chaser in my life. So, I mean, uh, just falling into peer pressure like I did just now, uh, was pretty much bad on my part,” he said after the game, via Basketball Network.
Warriors Rookie Not a Stat-Chaser
“I’m a guy that loves, like, you know, um, like ethical hoops,” he continued.
“Um, I’m a guy that loves, like, you know, efficient basketball, and I kind of, like, didn’t do that for the last two, three minutes.”
“I’ve never been a stat chaser in my life… I’m a guy that loves ethical hoops.”
Lendeborg also admitted that his “stat-chasing” nearly cost the Warriors the game, as the Clippers went on a 13-0 run to cut the deficit to eight points, prompting Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to bring his starting unit to close the game.
“I think BP [Brandin Podziemski] was shooting a free throw, and then Melton — it’s all Melton’s fault, guys, by the way — but De’Anthony Melton went up to me and said, ‘Hey, man, you need to get 40. You’re three points away.’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, man. It’s all good,’
“And then, you know, he just pressured me into doing it,” Lendeborg continued.
“He said he’s going to give me the ball, and he literally, like, was holding it just to give me the ball. And I’m like, ‘All right, fine. I’ll shoot it.’ And I missed, you know, but I tried to tell them, ‘No, no, no,’
“Everybody was just egging me on.”
Yaxel Disses Luka Doncic?
Although Lendeborg fell just short of 40 points, his 37-point performance powered the Warriors to their fourth straight win — the highest single-game total by a Warriors rookie since Stephen Curry in 2010.
Some Warriors fans felt Lendeborg took a shot at Doncic with his stat-chasing remarks.
He gone find a way to diss luka everytime i f**k with it 😂😂
Talks trash to Luka, drops 37 and calls it ‘ethical hoops.’ Warriors fans haven’t had this much fun since Curry’s rookie days.
What has luka done to this man 🤣?
However, some Lakers fans called out Lendeborg for hypocrisy since he did chase 40.
Regardless of what he says, Luka still owns this bum.
he was literally trying to get 40. when he was face and face with luka he didn’t show up why is this moron still talking
Your career high is Lukas average
Yaxel Lendeborg is currently the odds-on favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award.
Warriors’ Yaxel Lendeborg Takes a Shot at Lakers’ Luka Doncic?