If you were wondering whether Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg was for real after an impressive opening to his career, whether he was due for a letdown as teams figure out how to play him and start to get more physical with him–veterans like to put gum-flapping rookies in their place–we’ve got some scary news on that front. Lendeborg keeps getting better. On Sunday, with Stephen Curry sitting out and the Warriors just hopeful that they could manufacture a win without him, Lendeborg took over entirely (but efficiently), scoring a career-high 37 points on 13-for-19 shooting, making six of his 11 3-point tries and five of his six free throws.
The Warriors won, 124-112.
In fact, three of his misses did not come until the game was mostly decided, and his teammates were urging him to get to 40 points. Lendeborg took ill-advised 3-pointers with just under five minutes to play in the game, and again at 3:16 and 2:24. Coach Steve Kerr surely wanted to see the rookie hit 40, but he also saw a bit of a learning opportunity.
Warriors Pulled Yaxel Lendeborg in 40-Point Chase
After that third miss, Kerr had seen enough and the Warriors pulled Lendeborg–the Clippers had cut the lead to eight points and were making a game out of what had been a blowout, with the Warriors leading by 22 points with a little more than six minutes to play.
Kerr explained after the game: “He would’ve had 40 if we just kept playing. I thought the game, the NBA game, these days can change like that. Everybody sees, almost every night, there is a 25-point lead that is overcome.
“I thought the game changed twice. The first was when we tried to run the clock out with 15 minutes left, waited for them to come up. And then the game changed again when all the guys on the bench were yelling at Yax to get 40, and I think he launched three kinda bad shots. The lesson is if you just keep playing, then you stay in rhythm, you stay in flow, the ball moves and then the game becomes much easier. I think that’s the lesson for him and this team. But everybody loves Yax. They wanted him to get 40 and they were urging him to shoot form the bench.”
‘I Am a Guy That loves Ethical Hoops’
If indeed there was a lesson to be learned, then Lendeborg seemed to get it–don’t let your veteran Warriors teammates get you outside your game. He joked that De’Anthony Melton and Will Richard were the main culprits.
Said Lendeborg: “De’Anthony Melton came up to me and said, ‘Hey man, you need to get 40, you are three points away.’ I was like, ‘Nah, man, it’s all good.’ And then, you know, he is a peer pressure dude. So he said he was gonna give me the ball … I missed. But Will came over, and he said, ‘You gotta do it, you gotta do it.’ So everybody was egging me on.”
Lendeborg wanted to assure Warriors fans that racking up 40 point performances are not what he is about, though.
He said: “I’ve never been a stat-chaser in my life, so just falling into peer pressure like I did just now was pretty much bad on my part. Especially because I am a guy that loves ethical hoops. I am a guy that loves decent basketball and I, like, didn’t do that for the last two, three minutes.”
The Warriors will be back in action, with Curry, at 10 p.m. ET on Monday, against the Suns at home.
Warriors’ Yaxel Lendeborg Gets Tough ‘Lesson’ Despite Huge Game