<\/p>\n
Warriors first-round draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg pushes the ball upcourt in front of Lakers forward Anton Watson during a California Classic game at Chase Center on Friday.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
In the first half of his first summer-league game in a Golden State Warriors<\/a> uniform, Yaxel Lendeborg morphed into Stephen Curry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yes, we\u2019re kidding. Sort of.<\/p>\n Lendeborg, the No. 11 overall pick in last month\u2019s NBA draft, earned widespread praise for his polished, all-around game at Michigan. He played tenacious defense. He was a good passer. He could handle the ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n His 3-point shooting typically merited only secondary mention, but it soared to the top of the list in Friday night\u2019s California Classic game at Chase Center. Lendeborg made all four of his shots from long distance\u00a0\u2014 24 feet, 26 feet, 25 feet, 25 feet\u00a0\u2014 on his way to an impressive Warriors debut.<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg (1) shoots a 3-pointer against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first half of the 2026 California Classic Summer League at Chase Center in San Francisco on Friday, July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg finished with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds in 22 minutes\u00a0\u2014 and didn\u2019t miss any of his six shots from the field\u00a0\u2014 as the Warriors rolled to a 104-72 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Lendeborg gave himself a \u201cB\u201d grade for his debut, saying he \u201cmessed up a lot of defensive rotations.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI played fairly well into the fourth quarter, then kind of got a little sloppy,\u201d he said. \u201cOffensively, I think I was in the right spot and moved the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only a summer-league game, absolutely. Cameron Carr, not Luka Doncic, headlined the Lakers\u2019 roster. Lendeborg, not Curry, headlined Golden State\u2019s roster. Khalid Robinson, not Steve Kerr, coached the Warriors.\u00a0<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg (1) makes a gesture after making a 3-pointer against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first half of the 2026 California Classic Summer League at Chase Center in San Francisco on Friday, July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg did get lost a few times on defense. He gambled for steals when that wasn\u2019t the smartest play. He committed four turnovers, occasionally dribbling into traffic, and he acknowledged becoming winded in the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lendeborg, the Warriors\u2019 highest draft pick in five years,\u00a0still made a striking first impression. He delivered some nice passes, showed off his enormous wingspan and was active on defense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Plus he shot the ball with Curry-like precision, at least for one night.<\/p>\n \u201cHe showed a little bit of everything in his game,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cObviously, he\u00a0shot the ball well to start the game. He had some really good passes, playmaking, defense. There are things to improve on, but\u00a0it\u2019s a good first start to his career.\u201d<\/p>\n Rookie forward Yaxel Lendeborg, the Warriors\u2019 first-round draft pick, tries to find an open teammate while being pressured by Lakers forward AK Okereke in a California Classic game at Chase Center on Friday.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg scored 16 points in the first half, on 5-for-5 shooting from the field (including those four shots from deep). Then, on the first possession of the second half, he posted up his defender, bulled his way to the basket and muscled in a difficult bank shot while drawing the foul (he made the free throw).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Warriors could use some of that in November and December.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For the record, Lendeborg shot 37.2% beyond the arc last season at Michigan. His previous two college seasons, at Alabama-Birmingham, he made 33.3% and then 35.7%.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery year, my 3-point attempts have gone up tremendously,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cThis year I\u2019ve taken a big, big jump. I definitely think I could be in the 37-plus range for 3s.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden State Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg (1) makes a long footer against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first half of the 2026 California Classic Summer League at Chase Center in San Francisco on Friday, July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Or, as Robinson said, \u201cI think he can be a very solid 3-point shooter. He just needs to work on the fundamentals every day and get the reps.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Warriors clearly view Lendeborg through a wider lens. They chose him, in part, because of his apparent readiness to step into an NBA rotation right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He spent six years in college\u00a0\u2014 three at Arizona Western (junior college), two at UAB and one at Michigan\u00a0\u2014 and will turn 24 in September, before the start of his rookie season.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s definitely ready,\u201d second-year guard Will Richard said. \u201cI mean, being in college showing the number of years he was (six) and having that experience, it translates well to the NBA\u00a0\u2014 just knowing how to play the right way, knowing how pick up a game faster.\u201d<\/p>\n Warriors first-round draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg (1) celebrates with teammate Lachlan Olbrich (47) during a California Classic game against the Lakers at Chase Center on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Lendeborg also offered his first response to Draymond Green\u2019s comments on his podcast earlier this week. Green called Lendeborg a \u201cf\u2014 ing liar\u201d for telling reporters Green hadn\u2019t immediately responded to Lendeborg\u2019s text shortly after the NBA draft on June 23.<\/p>\n Green wasn\u2019t angry on the podcast, but he also clearly wasn\u2019t joking.\u00a0Lendeborg laughed when asked Friday night about the curious exchange.<\/p>\n \u201cMan, he knew what I was talking about\u00a0\u2014 I asked him a question (in the text) and he didn\u2019t respond to the question,\u201d Lendeborg said. \u201cI didn\u2019t say he didn\u2019t respond at all; I should have emphasized that if I didn\u2019t. It\u2019s kind of crazy how it went back and forth like that, but I\u2019m glad he\u2019s able to make a joke out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Briefly: Richard scored 16 points for the Warriors, going 4-for-5 beyond the arc. \u2026 Carr, a small forward from Baylor and the No. 24 overall pick in the draft, led the Lakers with 19 points. \u2026 The NBA is testing a \u201cone free throw rule\u201d in summer league games. Per the league, \u201cany foul that would typically result in one, two or three throws will instead result in a single attempt. That attempt will be worth the same total number of points as the free throws it replaces.\u201d So, for example, a player fouled while missing a 3-pointer attempts one free throw\u00a0\u2014 worth three points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors first-round draft pick Yaxel Lendeborg pushes the ball upcourt in front of Lakers forward Anton Watson during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,5552,590,85,275299],"class_list":["post-778686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/a>
<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n