What we learned as Yaxel Lendeborg drops 37 points in Warriors' win vs. Clippers

What we learned as Yaxel Lendeborg drops 37 points in Warriors' win vs. Clippers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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SAN FRANCISCO – All the confetti and remnants of a championship celebration were gone. As the Bay Area continues to celebrate the WNBA champion Valkyries, there was another game to be played Saturday night at Chase Center.

The Warriors welcomed the Los Angeles Clippers but were shorthanded without Steph Curry and Draymond Green on the first night of a back-to-back. Their absence didn’t matter because the Warriors have Yaxel Lendeborg, and the Clippers don’t. 

Yaxel told Steph he can have the night off 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/kFzHFDVxjP

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 2, 2026

How did Lendeborg come back from his stinker of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers? His answer was leading the Warriors to a 124-112 win over the Clippers with a game-high 37 points on 13-of-19 shooting, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range and also adding four rebounds and six assists.

Lendeborg played 112 college games at the Division-I level between UAB and Michigan, and had one 30-point game. Through his first seven NBA games, he already has two such games.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ fourth straight win.

Not every game is going to be perfect for Lendeborg. Not in his rookie year, and not as his career progresses. But after the worst game of his young NBA life, Lendeborg was nearly perfect in the first half.

With the Warriors ahead by six points at halftime, Lendeborg was the game’s leading scorer. He already scored 19 points after just six the previous game, going 7 of 8 from the field and 3 of 4 from 3-point range. Lendeborg also had three assists and consistently found himself attacking the paint to create good ball movement.

Second-quarter Yax takeover 💦 pic.twitter.com/5a3O3Hoy7l

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 2, 2026

Throughout the game, Lendeborg hunted for mismatches. He was too strong for players like Kobe Sanders and took advantage of enough space behind the 3-point line. When Rui Hachimura didn’t respect his outside shot, Lendeborg made him pay multiple times.

A three in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter gave Lendeborg a new career high of 32 points. Lendeborg also wasn’t called for a foul until there were seven minutes remaining, one game after fouling out. He’s an incredibly fast learner who’s translating his lessons to the court in real time.

In the first game the Warriors played without Curry this season, Williams went for 20 points in a road loss to the Suns. Williams knew the Warriors had to lean on him as a top scoring option, and they did. If the Clippers blinked, they missed him, too. 

Williams zoomed by the Clippers’ defense for 12 first-half points, flying in for a layup and two floaters. The cherry on top was Williams making two of his three attempts beyond the arc. When Williams came in during the third quarter, the Clippers still didn’t have an answer. 

He checked in at the 4:26 mark of the third quarter and was at the rim for another layup 25 seconds later. Guards, wings and big men tried their best but could not stay in front of Williams. The Warriors need his change of pace with an available Curry, and his scoring prowess becomes that much more important without him.

In the two games Curry has missed, Williams now is averaging 18.5 points on 57.1 percent shooting. 

Winning on the margins is a major theme of the Warriors, who know their margin of error down Curry and Green is razor thin. Enjoying a double-digit lead, they began to forget that concept in the third quarter. The Warriors committed just five turnovers in the first half, but then gave the ball away seven times in the third quarter as their lead dwindled to seven points entering the fourth. 

The Warriors in the fourth quarter took it to the Clippers on both ends. They scored at all three levels, played energized defense and didn’t lose control of the ball left and right. 

There still were four minutes to go when LJ Cryer, who is on a two-way contract, entered the game. The Clippers already had emptied their bench by then. The only thing left for the starters to do was see if Lendeborg could reach 40 points, but he fell just shy of the mark despite his best efforts.

Golden State cut its turnovers down to just three in the fourth quarter and was able to hold off LA’s attempt at a late rally.

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