Yaxel Lendeborg’s first NBA game didn’t go quite the way most rookies script their debut. He scored 12 points, played solid defense on one of the league’s best players, and still walked away from the night talking more about respect than stats.
The Warriors lost to the Lakers 127-105 on Wednesday in both teams’ season opener, but the real story out of Crypto.com Arena was the running feud between Lendeborg, Golden State’s rookie forward, and Lakers star Luka Doncic, a back-and-forth that started on the court and carried straight into the postgame press conference.
Lendeborg drew the assignment of guarding Doncic for much of the game, and by most accounts, he did it well. ESPN’s tracking stats had Doncic shooting just 1-of-6 with Lendeborg as his primary defender. It was in the second quarter, though, when things got heated. After a foul call went Doncic’s way, Lendeborg started chirping at him, and the two got into it, enough that referee James Capers stopped play entirely and hit Lendeborg with a technical foul.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr actually subbed Lendeborg out briefly after the initial dust-up, then put him right back in to continue guarding Doncic, and the back-and-forth kept going from there. At one point, Lendeborg could be seen telling Doncic his move was, in his words, “weak ass,” while Doncic laughed and clapped it off as officials and players tried to keep the two separated.
The rookie didn’t hold back once reporters got him afterward. “I had a lot of respect for him because I didn’t really watch the NBA much,” Lendeborg said, before explaining what changed his mind. According to Golden State reporter Anthony Slater, Lendeborg said he’d told Doncic directly: “He sucks. He can’t score on me.”
His bigger issue wasn’t really the fouls themselves. It was what came after them. “It’s not about getting the foul call,” Lendeborg said, “it’s about him complaining the entire game. You got the foul call, congratulations, but then you talk to me like you did something great?” He summed up the whole exchange afterward with one word: “awful.”
Photo: AP
Doncic, for his part, seemed to take the whole thing far more lightly. He capped the first half with a half-court three right in Lendeborg’s face, the kind of answer that speaks louder than any trash talk, and later joked publicly about trying to avoid technical foul trouble of his own this season.
This wasn’t exactly out of character for Lendeborg, even this early in his career. He’d already built a reputation during the preseason for being unfiltered, and Wednesday’s exchange with Doncic was just the most high-profile example yet of a young player who clearly isn’t intimidated by reputation or star power.
On the court, Lendeborg’s been exactly what Golden State hoped for when they took him 11th overall in this year’s draft. He started the regular-season opener after Kerr confirmed the plan days in advance, and he’d shown flashes throughout the preseason too, including a 23-point, 10-rebound, six-assist performance in a preseason win over Sacramento. Wednesday’s 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting, plus three rebounds, two assists and a steal across 29 minutes, was a solid if unspectacular follow-up, with his free-throw shooting, 1-of-3 on the night, standing out as one area still needing work.
Lendeborg’s role matters more than usual this season given Golden State’s injury situation. The Warriors opened the year without Jimmy Butler, still working back from a knee issue, Moses Moody, also dealing with a knee injury, Brandin Podziemski with a back problem, and Kristaps Porzingis, who was out sick. That’s a significant chunk of the rotation missing, and it’s part of why Lendeborg was thrown into a starting role, and significant minutes, right out of the gate.
Steve Kerr backed his rookie after the game regarding the Doncic incident, and reports indicate Draymond Green offered his own endorsement of Lendeborg’s approach as well, support that matters for a first-year player navigating his first real viral moment in the league.
With Golden State’s rotation still banged up, Lendeborg looks locked into a significant role for at least the next several weeks, giving him plenty of opportunity to build on a debut that, stat line aside, already made him one of the most talked-about rookies in the league after just one game. Whether Wednesday’s exchange with Doncic turns into an actual rivalry or fades as a one-off story probably depends on how often these two teams, and these two players, end up matched up again this season.
