Yaxel Lendeborg blames peer pressure for unethical hoops

The Golden State Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 124-112, on Sunday. The Warriors were without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, but that wasn’t an issue because Yaxel Lendeborg scored a career-high 37-points. It was the highest scoring output by a Warriors’ rookie since Curry scored 42 in the final game of the 2009-2010 season.

Lendeborg has been unbelievable in his first couple weeks in the NBA. He’s second on the team in scoring at 22.3 points per game and leads Golden State with 7.3 rebounds a game. More importantly, he’s trying to do things the right way.

The 24-year-old rookie made headlines after his first game when he criticized Luka Doncic and complained about players flopping. After his latest game he apologized for forgetting himself and playing unethical basketball in the fourth quarter.

MORE: Yaxel Lendeborg joins Shaq, Patrick Ewing & David Robinson in NBA rookie history

“I’ve never been a stat chaser in my life. … I’m a guy who loves ethical hoops.”

Yaxel had to check himself after trying to score 40 points 😅 https://t.co/YtWW3gyFsJ

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) November 2, 2026

“I’ve never been a stat-chaser in my life, so I mean, just falling into peer pressure like I did just now was pretty much bad on my part,” said Lendeborg. “Especially, just, I’m a guy that likes ethical hoops. I’m a guy that loves efficient basketball and I kind of didn’t do that for the last two, three minutes. So it’s kind of bad on my part. Next time I definitely won’t do that again. If it comes to me it does and if I don’t get it then I wasn’t meant to get it that day.”

Lendeborg blamed teammate De’Anthony Melton for talking him into going for 40, which led to him missing a few three-pointers in the final minutes.

Highlights from Yaxel Lendeborg’s career-high 37-point performance

Apologizing for forcing your shot a few times in a game where you made 13-of-19 field goal attempts is wild. Someone really needs to ask Lendeborg how he feels about fellow rookie Darius Acuff Jr., who is leading the NBA in field goal attempts per game right now and shooting below 40% from the field.

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