Every rookie in the NBA, no matter the age or potential, must go through one particular moment at some point during their debut season. That experience was given a very explicit name: the "Welcome to the NBA" moment. One official game into his NBA career, Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg already got it out of the way.
Tasked with the daunting assignment of guarding superstar Luka Doncic, the 24-year-old rookie put up a valiant fight for most of the first half, until Lendeborg let out his frustration after Doncic tricked him into committing a body-bumping foul. Luka clapped back, smiling, and the pair kept it going for the remainder of the second quarter. Lendeborg even picked up a technical foul for talking trash to Doncic after getting a stop on a three-pointer, probably more a case of rookie treatment than anything else.
Yaxel Lendeborg goes head-to-head with Luka Doncic in L.A.
On the final play of the first half, Doncic got the last laugh over the rookie, hitting a half-court ceiling-scraper to extend the Lakers' lead to 14 points heading into halftime. That was it right there: his "Welcome to the NBA" moment.
"I loved the back-and-forth," Steve Kerr said following the Warriors' 127-105 loss to the Lakers. "Yaxel is a competitor, this was a great "Welcome to the NBA" game for him. Having to guard Luka who's as tough to guard as anybody in the world, having to learn about all the little tricks that exist in the NBA. He probably had three fouls that probably wouldn't be called fouls in any other league in the world, but it's the NBA, he's got to learn this stuff."
Lendeborg didn't hold back on his first impression of the way the game is played in the NBA.
"That was interesting, I got to see what the NBA is like," the rookie said after putting up 12 points, three rebounds, and two assists in his NBA debut. "A lot of flopping, a lot of foul baiting, a lot of crying to the ref. Interesting first game for me, for sure."
As for his interaction with the six-time All-Star, Lendeborg said he "lost all respect" after witnessing firsthand "all the whining and complaining the entire game." To the rookie's credit, when Luka torched the Warriors for 23 first-half points, he was the only Warrior that managed to slow him down. According to ESPN's tracking, Doncic scored just two points on 0-for-4 shooting from the field with Lendeborg as his primary defender in the half court in the first half.
"I was telling him he sucks," Lendeborg said when asked to describe his trash-talking sessions with Doncic. "He can't score on me, I said it the whole game. I said a couple of cuss words obviously, that's why I got the technical and all that, but I was letting him know. His only bucket on me was a banker from half court. I know it's a team sport, he had 28 on us as a team. Me, I took my matchup personally, try not to get caught on the fouls. Tried my best. I was thinking about playing him with my hands behind my back to see if that worked. Probably still would've got a foul call.
Draymond Green, who's taken the rookie under his wing, disagrees with the narrative that defenders shouldn't engage with players of Doncic's caliber.
"You fu**ing go talk to somebody, you talk until you fu**ing talk no more," Green, who remembers his "Welcome to the League" moment as Kevin Durant giving the Warriors 54 points back in 2014, said at his locker. "And if he bust your a**, guess what? You're playing him again three more times and you go back at his a** again. And then you see him the third time and you go back at his a** again."
Everything went south after the first quarter
Good news for Lendeborg: it doesn't get much tougher to deal with than Doncic. For the Warriors, though, it won't get any easier. Aside from a strong first quarter in which the Warriors scored 33 points and turned the ball over just once, the overall feeling around this season-opening performance is that it was eerily reminiscent of last season's dark days. Amid a third-quarter collapse, the issues were familiar: unforced turnovers, poor point-of-attack defense, a blatant lack of rim protection, and insufficient production outside of star guard Steph Curry.
Throughout training camp and preseason, the coaching staff has tried to implement a new offensive scheme built around the hope of cutting down on turnovers and promoting Steve Kerr's motto: win in the margins. For the first 12 minutes of the game, it looked like the process was starting to pay off. The Warriors were making sound decisions and taking care of the ball. It helped that Curry was doing Curry things. A somewhat encouraging first half got erased by an egregious third quarter, with the Warriors committing nine turnovers along with shooting just 29% from the field. The Lakers took advantage, outscoring Golden State 36-16 in the period, and never looked back.
"In the third quarter our body language went south, we let our heads hang, and we kind of let things slip away from us," Kerr noted. "Got in a rush, we weren't executing, we weren't getting to our spots, which makes the game a lot murkier."
Without Kristaps Porzingis, whom the Warriors are considering trading as the big man is rethinking his future in the sport, Golden State didn't have enough firepower inside to deal with 7'2" Walker Kessler. Questionable defensive rotations and bad communication propelled the Lakers' new center to a historic game, as Kessler finished with 26 points and nine rebounds on 12-of-12 shooting, becoming the first Laker since Wilt Chamberlain in 1969 to finish 12-of-12 or better from the field. Kessler also compiled 10 dunks, with most of them coming off lobs from Austin Reaves and Doncic, as the Warriors' perimeter defenders struggled to stay in front of the Lakers' feared duo. The Lakers scored 66 of their 127 points in the paint, shooting almost 70%.
People were worried about Curry's ankle following a scare during Monday's open practice at Chase Center, when the two-time MVP was forced to leave the court after tweaking his ankle. The Chef put all those concerns to rest in the first quarter, putting up 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting in his first stint of the game. And the Warriors were rolling with him, trailing by just one after the opening frame.
Then Steph cooled off, and the offense cratered. Over the next two quarters, Curry added just seven points on 0-for-6 shooting, and didn't play in the fourth. With Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody, and Brandin Podziemski all out, nobody picked up his slack. The Warriors put up just 35 points in the second and third quarters combined.
Brandon Williams did reach double figures with 14, but converted just three of his 12 attempts from the field. Al Horford was barely a factor, missing all three of his tries. So was De'Anthony Melton, taking just two shots and misfiring on both.
For a team in the middle of reimagining the way they want to approach both ends of the floor, that rough season opener proved the amount of work that still lies ahead. Offensively, the details still need to be cleaned up. More importantly, someone will have to step up on nights Steph either doesn't have it or is in street clothes. Podziemski, who missed the opener due to back soreness but is considered day-to-day, might be a candidate. Defensively, allowing over 30 points in three out of four quarters isn't going to cut it.
The NBA season is a long, arduous journey. Overreacting to Game 1 of 82 usually isn't healthy. But with this squad, every misstep carries significant weight. Their margin for error is as thin as it gets. As thin as it's been in a long time. With the goal being surviving until reinforcement arrives, every loss matters. The way they lose matters even more. On Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena, the manner was more concerning than the final score in itself.
"A lot to work on in terms of consistency at every facet of the game," Curry said
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