With the Warriors up by four points with less than two minutes left before halftime, Steve Kerr put the ball in the hands of the best player on the court at that moment: their rookie. With a tough midrange jumper, an off-the-dribble three, a couple of free throws and another three at the top of the key, Yaxel Lendeborg rattled off 10 points to close the first half. The Warriors headed into halftime with a six-point lead.
Without Steph Curry and Draymond Green, who both sat out the front end of the back-to-back but will play against the Suns on Monday night, the Warriors needed someone else to create. Kerr said pregame they intended to play through Lendeborg a lot despite his recent struggles when facing pressure. Over his previous two games, Lendeborg had committed 12 total turnovers. Against the Lakers on Friday, he said he had "the worst game of his life."
The Warriors expected a response. Well, they got a loud one. In his seventh NBA game, Lendeborg put up a career-high 37 points on 13-for-19 shooting from the field and 6-for-11 from three – the highest-scoring output by a Warriors rookie since Curry went for 42 points in 2010 – powering the Warriors to a 124-112 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers, their fourth straight win after starting 0-3.
Lendeborg turned the page and took charge of the offense
Kerr said postgame that he didn't even talk to Lendeborg after his disappointing performance against the Lakers. He let his vets — Curry, Green and Al Horford — help him understand how the NBA game works. And Lendeborg, who called himself a big dweller on bad games, needs that help. Back in college, he would fixate on an off night for a whole week. In the NBA, it's impossible. Games keep coming. So Lendeborg was eager to put that game behind him as quickly as possible.
"I 100% wanted to switch that up, that's not who I am," he said of the Lakers game. "Last game I was playing like a Debbie Downer. I just got to go back to playing the way I always play, with a lot of joy, a lot of smiles, dancing, all the other stuff. I'm going to try to steal some of Steph's dance moves eventually, but I just got to get back to being me. That was an awful game, I dwelt on it as long as I could, but once I made one today I was like 'okay, that game, it doesn't happen no more.'"
In that game against the Lakers, Lendeborg rushed his reads and played without discipline defensively. He committed five turnovers and fouled out in just 24 minutes. Kerr mentioned after Lendeborg's seven-turnover game against the Wolves the importance of making the simple play over and over again. With the ball in his hands for big chunks of the game against the Clippers, Lendeborg again looked as comfortable and patient as ever. He didn't force the issue and waited for the right play to unfold in front of him. He finished his night with six assists for just two turnovers.
"I've always wanted to be a point guard all my life, so you know just actually getting an opportunity today, it's like 'don't mess it up, don't mess it up' you know," Lendeborg said on the court postgame. "I'm going to keep channeling that Magic Johnson."
When the organization worked him out in the summer, everybody inside the building knew Lendeborg could shoot the ball and contribute offensively. But the off-the-dribble three-pointer? That's another story.
"It changes everything," Kerr said of Lendeborg hitting that shot. "You see on a night like tonight without Steph, we score 124 points and Yax is the main reason that we're high-powered."
Lendeborg first started focusing on his three-point shot at Michigan. His coach, Dusty May, held hopes of playing him at the three. So Lendeborg went into the lab. The early stages were rough. One of the first drills his coaches made him go through was to simply make five straight threes. It took him 40 minutes. But his coaches back then never stopped believing in his jumper. And confidence eventually came after he piled up the reps and fought through a few bad stretches.
As for the off-the-dribble one, the crazy part is that he doesn't really practice it. He just tried it in a game with Michigan and thought it could work.
"I don't really get much reps of it," he said. "Try it out before the game, if it goes in it goes in, if not I tried, you know. I'm going to try to make that my signature eventually."
Warriors got meaningful contributions up and down the rotation
Lendeborg played a big role in leading the offense without Curry, but he didn't do it on his own. Brandin Podziemski put together his fifth straight convincing performance, finishing with 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists while committing just one turnover. Two of Lendeborg's six assists were cashed in by De'Anthony Melton, who knocked down six of his eight threes en route to a 21-point outing. As the scoring punch off the bench, Brandon Williams added 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Warriors made 22 of their 49 threes and dished out 32 assists, a new season high.
The most important thing for the Warriors is to keep stacking up wins no matter who is on the floor. They are going to need to win games without their veterans. Lendeborg, more often than not, should play a big role in that quest.
Even with Curry and Green on the floor, having Lendeborg as another ball handler option will be huge for Golden State, especially late in games, when teams are expecting the Curry-Green pick-and-roll more than anything. With his size and "innate feel for basketball," as Kerr put it, Lendeborg can see over defenders and feed his teammates. The Warriors can play through him.
Lendeborg initiating the action and carrying some of the crunch-time load Curry usually carries would also help preserve the 38-year-old and free him from some of the team's offensive responsibility.
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