Rookie Yaxel Lendeborg drained six 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 37 points, and the Golden State Warriors, despite resting Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, recorded their fourth consecutive win, 124-112 over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night in San Francisco.
Playing on the same court where the Golden State Valkyries captured the WNBA championship 24 hours earlier, the Warriors got 21 points from De’Anthony Melton and 17 apiece from Brandon Williams and Brandin Podziemski on the front end of a back-to-back.
Curry and Green are expected to return when Golden State hosts the Phoenix Suns on Monday night.
Lendeborg, whose previous career high was 31 points in a victory at Denver last Monday that began the Warriors’ winning streak, shot 13-for-19 from the field and 6-for-11 from beyond the 3-point arc. The rookie forward also contributed six assists.
Trailing 83-68 after a Lendeborg 3-pointer with 5:20 remaining in the third quarter, the Clippers refused to go away. They pulled within seven by the end of the period and remained within eight until Lendeborg’s fifth 3-pointer, with 8:29 remaining, restored a double-digit lead and helped Golden State maintain control down the stretch.
Charles Bassey, starting at center, led the Warriors with 10 rebounds. Podziemski complemented his 17 points – 15 of which came in the second half – with eight rebounds and a game-high eight assists.
Rui Hachimura hit four 3-pointers and scored a team-high 24 points for the Clippers, who dropped their fifth consecutive game.
Darius Garland recorded a team-high seven assists to go with 15 points. Reserves Kobe Sanders and Nick Martinelli added 16 and 10 points, respectively, while Kris Dunn had seven steals to go with 12 points for Los Angeles. The Clippers played without Brandon Ingram, Bradley Beal, Jordan Miller and Max Strus.
The visitors led by as many as 11 in the first quarter, using 3-pointers by Sanders and Brook Lopez during a 10-0 burst that put the Clippers ahead 37-26.
But Williams and Lendeborg had two baskets apiece when Golden State opened the second quarter on an 11-2 run that put the hosts ahead en route to a 63-57 halftime advantage.
Lendeborg scored 19 of his 37 points in the first half.
–Field Level Media
