Lendeborg lifts Warriors late as Golden State claims second summer league championship

Golden State forward Yaxel Lendeborg hoists the NBA Summer League MVP trophy following his team's, 94-90, win over Memphis Sunday night. Photo Credit: Terrel Emerson/Talk that Talk

Day 11 of the NBA Summer League brought the annual championship game that would be the culmination of nearly two full weeks of basketball in Las Vegas.

Golden State moved to 5-1 in the valley with a final, 94-90, win over Memphis Sunday, July 19 from the Thomas & Mack Center. It’s the first summer league title for the Warriors since claiming the inaugural one in 2013.

Moreover, the win gives Golden State two summer league titles which ties Portland and Sacramento for the most all-time in league history.

“Their butts got tight, man,” forward Yaxel Lendeborg said. “They puckered up, you know what I mean. Some of us our built for the moment and some aren’t. When you get opportunities like that and you go attack the moment then you know you belong in that moment,”

Warriors forward Yaxel Lendeborg takes a deep two-pointer as Grizzlies forward Cameron Boozer closes out on the shot attempt. Photo Credit: Terrel Emerson/Talk that Talk

Lendeborg drilled a three-pointer to give the Warriors the lead on the way to scoring five straight points late to give his team a four-point lead.

“Just making winning plays,” he said. “I just wanted to prove that I’m a winner, not caring about the stats, just caring about the outcome.”

Lendeborg scored 21 points on 50% shooting to go along with 10 rebounds en route to the victory, outplaying No. 3 overall pick Cameron Boozer in the process.

“I think about [revenge] every time I go out and play him,” Lendeborg said. “Every game we play, man the refs be saving him. Saving everybody but no forreal though, it’s just the competitive nature [...] I’m 1-2 against him so hopefully I can even the score as we go ahead.”

Earlier in that fourth quarter, Golden State trailed Memphis by 12 points. Boozer gave the Grizzlies their first double-digit lead with a late three-pointer to conclude the third quarter.

In the loss, Boozer added 19 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

Number three overall pick Cameron Boozer works off-ball to shake free of No. 11 overall pick Yaxel Lendeborg during the championship game of this year's NBA Summer League from the campus of UNLV. Photo Credit: Terrel Emerson/Talk that Talk

Boozer was aided big time by second-year player Cedric Coward, who tallied 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting including a perfect 5-for-5 from deep. Two of those five threes came late in regulation featuring a made trey after the Warriors had cut the deficit to two and again after the timeout following the five straight points by Lendeborg.

On the other hand, Golden State had tremendous guard play that helped catapult the team to victory. The tandem of LJ Cryer and Deivon Smith combined to score 36 points on a very efficient 14-for-24 from the field. Additionally, Smith’s 21 points accounted for the majority of the team’s 29 bench points.

“Those guys are built for this,” Lendeborg said. “They’ve been doing this for a long time so just being able to have somebody like that to lead guys means a lot to us. In those times where we got bogged down, those guys provided instant offense.”

Cryer added another ring to his collection after having already won a National Championship with Baylor. Moreover, teammate Will Richard and Lendeborg did the same after having accomplished the same collegiate feat each of the last two seasons.

“[The Grizzlies] definitely had a lot of experience,” Richard said. “But from top to bottom on our team, we were all very experienced, very connected. We all know how to hoop and we wanted to win so it made it fun.”