{"id":760037,"date":"2026-07-13T08:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760037\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T08:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:50:17","slug":"yaxel-lendeborgs-room-for-improvement-evident-vs-thunder-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/760037\/","title":{"rendered":"Yaxel Lendeborg\u2019s room for improvement evident vs. Thunder \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2013 Once again, Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a> got the best of a former Michigan teammate in his second game during the Las Vegas NBA Summer League.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After beating Morez Johnson<\/a> and the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday, Lendeborg got bragging rights with the Warriors\u2019 104-79 win<\/a> over Aday Mara and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center on UNLV\u2019s campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lendeborg scored a game-high 14 points, and also had two rebounds, four assists and three steals as a plus-14. Mara scored 10 points and added nine rebounds as a minus-8.<\/p>\n

The Warriors improved to 2-0 in Las Vegas and 4-1 overall this summer.<\/a> Sunday\u2019s win was far from beautiful basketball, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On paper, the Warriors won in nearly every category. They shot 44.2 percent from the field, just better than the Thunder\u2019s 44.1 percent while taking nine more shots than OKC and making four more. The Warriors went 15 of 41 from 3-point range (36.6 percent), which was much better than the Thunder going 8 of 30 (26.7 percent).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors also tallied 19 more rebounds than the Thunder (45 to 26), six more assists (23 to 17) and seven more steals (10 to 3), plus three fewer turnovers (13 to 10).\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone that came in the game executed the game plan pretty well,\u201d Warriors coach Khalid Robinson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lendeborg started the game slowly in the first quarter before finding his shot during a nine-point second quarter, where he drained three 3-pointers, including one over Mara.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His celebration alone shows what kind of fun personality Lendeborg brings to the court. Lendeborg\u2019s favorite moment of the game might have come in the third quarter when he beat Mara on a jump ball. When it landed in the Warriors\u2019 hands, Lendeborg gave a fist bump and yelled \u201cyes!\u201d with a giant grin across his face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Offensively, Lendeborg was 5 of 14 from the field and 4 of 8 beyond the arc. His hot 3-point shooting continued. An array of skills with the ball in his hands continues to shine, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defensively, however, Lendeborg continues to be a mixed bag. Yes, he came away with three steals, but that doesn\u2019t show his lapses. Lendeborg has been drifting and spectating on defense. Once he\u2019s playing strictly against NBA players, those bad habits will have to leave him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an area where you got to continue to grow,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cWe talk about just being locked in at all times defensively, on and off the ball. It\u2019s a level of awareness that you have to have as a defender at this level and he\u2019s going to continue to grow at that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lendeborg himself has admitted he isn\u2019t in the best shape right after trying to be off his feet as much as he could following Michigan\u2019s national championship run. He dealt with a sprained MCL and a rolled ankle but continued to play through pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every rep and every game is a learning lesson for Lendeborg and the rest of his Warriors teammates. The spotlight is brightest on him as the Warriors\u2019 top draft pick. The positives continue to be eye-opening. The negatives are issues the Warriors aren\u2019t worried about at all in the long run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Warriors play next on Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies at 4 p.m. PT.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2013 Once again, Yaxel Lendeborg got the best of a former Michigan teammate in his second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1755,99,98985],"class_list":["post-760037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-sports","tag-yaxel-lendeborg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}