Luka Doncic and Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg trade words in Lakers opener
Doncic said Lendeborg's talk brought out a different side of him during the Lakers' 127-105 win. The rookie said the game left him with less respect for Doncic.
Luka Doncic and Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg exchanged words during the Los Angeles Lakers' season opener at Crypto.com Arena on Wednesday, October 21. After the Lakers' 127-105 win, Doncic said the talk sharpened his response on court, while Lendeborg said Doncic's conduct had cost him respect.
The exchange gives a sharper account of a matchup already covered in our report on the Lakers' season-opening win. The two players' postgame comments describe their disagreement from different perspectives; neither account establishes who first spoke to the other.
What Doncic and Lendeborg said after the game
Asked about the exchange, Doncic said, ‘Everybody knows when somebody starts talking, you get a different me. So that was it.’ He said Lendeborg ‘was talking crazy’ but that he was trying to limit his own replies to avoid technical fouls. Doncic described that restraint as something he was working on this season.
Lendeborg offered a much less favourable view of his first meeting with Doncic on an NBA court. ‘I had a lot of respect for him,’ Lakers Wire quoted the rookie as saying after the game. But, he said, watching what he called Doncic's ‘whining and complaining’ firsthand had changed that view. BasketNews reported that Lendeborg's criticism concerned Doncic's appeals to referees throughout the game, rather than just one foul call.
Lendeborg also accused Doncic of flopping and seeking foul calls, according to BasketNews. Those descriptions are the rookie's assessment of his opponent, not findings about how the game was officiated. Warriors coach Steve Kerr defended Lendeborg and criticised a technical-foul decision, BasketNews reported. The players' remarks leave their competing accounts of the verbal exchange unresolved.
How the exchange fit into the Lakers' win
The Lakers led 66-52 at halftime, when Doncic had 23 points and Lendeborg had five, according to HITC's account of the game. HITC placed the exchange before a late first-half scoring burst by Doncic, who finished the half with a long shot at the buzzer. That sequence shows when the confrontation happened, without establishing that it caused the scoring run.
Doncic finished with 28 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, ClutchPoints reported. Lendeborg scored 12 points in the opener. The Lakers pulled away after halftime, outscoring the Warriors 36-16 in the third quarter, according to ClutchPoints. The result was settled on court, but the postgame remarks made the players' disagreement a separate story from the score.
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Sources and context
- Luka Doncic on trash-talking Warriors rookie Yaxel LendeborgLakers Wire (USA TODAY); republished by Yahoo Sports
- Lakers’ Luka Doncic sounds off on making Yaxel Lendeborg pay for trash talkClutchPoints
- Warriors rookie tells Luka Doncic 'you suck,' says respect is goneBasketNews
- 'Don't do it rook' - Warriors rookie's heated exchange with Luka Doncic has fans buzzing after backfiringHITC
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.