All Yaxel Lendeborg does is win championships.
Three months after his Michigan Wolverines won the NCAA Tournament, Lendeborg led the Golden State Warriors to their first NBA Summer League championship since 2013 with a 94-90 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. He finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, bringing the Warriors back from a 12-point deficit in the 4th quarter thanks to a personal 7-0 run.
Beyond his scoring prowess, Lendeborg was the key player on a Warriors defense that held No. 3 pick Cameron Boozer and the Grizzlies to just 14 4th-quarter points. That performance made him the only choice for Summer League Championship Game MVP, following in the footsteps of 2013 SLCGMVP Ian Clark.
The win was a clear team effort, but it wouldn’t have happened without an outstanding performance off the bench from Deivon Smith, who shot 9-for-14 and scored 21 points, adding nine rebounds and keeping the team in the game in the first quarter by scoring nine straight points.
Smith saved the best for last in Las Vegas, putting up 21 big points after scoring just four in the Warriors’ previous games. The Warriors also got 15 points, six assists and four three-pointers from LJ Cryer, who finished with the second-most threes in Summer League, trailing only Chaz Lanier of the Detroit Pistons. Cryer iced the game at the end of the 4th by eluding the Grizzlies attempts to foul him, then splitting his two free throws for the final four-point margin.
The game came down to the Warriors’ tough defense down the stretch, overcoming Boozer’s 19 points, 19 points and 5-for-5 three-point shooting from All-Rookie first-teamer Cedric Coward, and 16 points from rookie Carson Cooper, who Draymond Green would probably have voted for Championship Game MVP, since Cooper went to Michigan State.
Officially, this was Golden State’s second Summer League title, but the 2012 team went 5-0 and won by an average of 16 points per game. That team contained most of the young foundation of the later championship teams, with Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, and Green. The next year’s team was led by Green, 2017 champion Clark, and fan favorite/Under Armour legend Kent Bazemore, who should all retroactively get championship rings from Joe Lacob, like all Summer champs since 2022.
Summer League games may be exhibitions, but the competitiveness is real. What Lendeborg, Cryer, Smith, Will Richard, Graham Ike, Malevy Leons, Lachlan Olbrich, Lajae Jones, and Chance McMillian pulled off shows they can deliver in big moments, even if they had some brain farts down the stretch. That is going to pay off next season, even if that mostly happens in Santa Cruz.
I was convinced they could win it all after their first game due to their talent, but they won on Sunday relying on their toughness and grit. Spain may have taken home the World Cup in New Jersey earlier in the day, but for my money, it doesn’t get any better than a Summer League crown.
At least in July. Winning the Finals is still a lot better.
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