Yaxel Lendeborg had waited all week for a night like this one. With Stephen Curry sidelined, the Golden State Warriors' rookie sensation would finally run the show as the team's primary offensive option — and the whole basketball world would be watching. Ninety minutes later, the whole basketball world was still watching, but for a very different reason. Lendeborg missed 12 of his 13 shots, the Warriors lost 123-85 to the San Antonio Spurs, and the 24-year-old walked into the locker room and told the truth about it.
The numbers were brutal. Lendeborg finished with three points on 1-for-13 shooting, seven rebounds and one assist in 24 minutes, a team-worst minus-40. Golden State fell behind 18-0 before it had scored a point, and the 38-point margin made it the Warriors' worst loss of the season — their first back-to-back defeat of the year, dropping them to 8-5.
It was the worst game of a rookie season that, until Friday night, had looked like a storybook. Lendeborg, the 11th overall pick, had averaged 21.7 points and 7.4 rebounds through his first 12 games, sat atop the NBA's Kia Rookie Ladder, and spent the week being talked about as an early Rookie of the Year favorite. Hours before tipoff, he had told Taylor Rooks of NBA on Prime that his ambitions went even higher than that. 'I'm trying to be an All-Star this year,' he said.
"I was flustered the entire game"
Lendeborg did not hide from the performance. Asked about the night afterward, he was blunt about how it felt from the inside.
I was flustered the entire game, man. Couldn't make a damn layup — a layup. I don't even know.
He was just as direct when a reporter asked what he could take away from a night like that. 'I ain't going to lie. I don't have nothing to learn, bro,' he said. 'We got the s—t beat out of us.' And he admitted the defeat had shaken him. 'I'm f—ed up mentally right now,' he said, adding that he would not be able to move on from the loss quickly.
That kind of honesty is rare in a postgame locker room. The clips spread across social media overnight, and by Saturday morning his name was the No. 1 trending search in the United States.
"He's skinnier than me"
The man at the center of Lendeborg's nightmare was Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs star needed only 21 minutes to put up 12 points, 12 rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal — and his presence bent the whole game out of shape. With Wembanyama on the floor, the Warriors shot 10-of-42 from the field, a 24 percent conversion rate that is the worst any team has posted against him in a game in his career.
Asked afterward whether scoring against Wembanyama was harder than he expected, Lendeborg gave the answer that went everywhere.
I just wasn't being aggressive. Like, he's skinnier than me. I gotta go put an elbow on his chest and jump into his body or something. Like if he blocks it, he blocks it. I can't be going up there scared. That was pretty much what it was. All of us were kind of scared in a way.
It was a strange line to hear from a 24-year-old rookie about a 7-foot-4 defender — and it was also the most honest scouting report of the night. Lendeborg was not making excuses. He was saying, out loud, that fear changed the way he played, and that he knew it.
The All-Star talk, before the fall
The timing made the night sting more. In the same NBA on Prime interview where he declared his All-Star ambitions, Lendeborg also pushed back on the biggest compliment of his young career. Draymond Green had said before the season that the Warriors had found 'the next face of the franchise.' Lendeborg disagreed. 'No, I do not,' he said. 'When I first got drafted, I just expected to be a guy that sits in a corner, waits for a shot, maybe averages like seven points a game. Now, I've somewhat become like the second option on offence. That's definitely something I never thought would happen in the NBA.'
That is the part of the story the viral clips leave out. Lendeborg did not arrive in the league acting like a star. He arrived expecting to be a role player, then played his way into being the Warriors' second option at 21.7 points a night — and then, on the first night he was asked to carry the team without Curry, ran into the one defender in the league built to humble scorers.
THE STORY SO FAR
Wednesday, November 11 — Stephen Curry tears his right oblique in Houston and is ruled out for at least two weeks.
Friday, November 13, before the game — Lendeborg tells Taylor Rooks on NBA on Prime that he is aiming for an All-Star selection in his rookie season, and says he does not see himself as the future face of the franchise.
Friday night — The Spurs rout the Warriors 123-85 at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Golden State trails 18-0 early. Lendeborg goes 1-for-13 from the field and finishes with three points.
After the game — Lendeborg gives the brutally honest locker-room interview that spreads across social media overnight.
Saturday, November 14 — 'Lendeborg' becomes the No. 1 trending search in the United States, with ESPN, EssentiallySports, Yardbarker, Heavy and Sportskeeda all carrying the story.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Golden State gets two days off before visiting the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night, still without Curry. Lendeborg gets the next game to answer a nightmare night — and the whole league will be watching to see whether the rookie who told the truth about being scared comes back swinging.
Curry will be re-evaluated in about two weeks. Until then, the Warriors' offense runs through the rookie who just had the worst night of his career — and who, to his credit, did not pretend otherwise.
