Yaxel Lendeborg and Stephen Curry led the Golden State Warriors to a 134-114 win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday at Ball Arena.
Lendeborg had 31 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, while Curry had 24 points on 8-of-8 shooting.
NIkola Jokic had 19 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds in defeat.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ first win of the season.
Yaxel’s Ceiling Is Higher Than I Expected
Yaxel Lendeborg showed some ball-handling and playmaking skills at Michigan. But anyone who saw THIS coming deserves to be employed in an NBA scouting department.
Lendeborg got downhill at will against Denver. He went 8-of-11 on two-pointers, and all of them were in the paint.
Most were dunks and layups, but perhaps his most impressive play was a post-move hook shot on Jokic for an and-1.
Lendeborg also shot 13 free throws, and most of them came from bulldozing drives into the paint.
In the non-Curry minutes, Lendeborg ran the offense, and he consistently made great decisions. His passing vision was on full display.
The only blemish on his game was a 1-of-8 clip from three-point range, but it’s also encouraging that he didn’t even need a big game from downtown to drop a 30-piece.
I’m trying not to declare him a clear draft steal four games into his NBA career, but if you do, I won’t blame you. His ceiling looked like a fringe star on Monday, and at the least it’s higher than the high-end role player prediction I had for him.
Curry Gets Rewarded for Deferring
The last time Stephen Curry had no misses from the field or the free-throw line in a game was 2011.
The two-time MVP accomplished it for the second time in his career Monday.
Curry had a great game, and that could have been one of the takeaways from this game. But the bigger Curry takeaway is that he deferred consistently and got rewarded for it.
Over the last few years, it sometimes felt like Curry had to be Superman to keep the offense afloat. On Monday, he faced the type of defensive pressure he usually gets, and instead of trying high-risk plays to score on it, he made the right pass over and over.
Curry finished with just three assists, but he had several more secondary assists. And overall, it just felt like every time he passed the ball, the Warriors were making the right plays to get great looks.
With Lendeborg adding another dimension to the offense, perhaps the Warriors need less scoring and more playmaking from Curry.
Can he settle into that role while maintaining high efficiency and a low turnover count (two on Monday)? We shall see as the season moves along.
Braun No Match for Podz in Impact on Monday’s Game
One of the players Brandin Podziemski was often compared to by fans and writers discussing his contract negations was Christian Braun.
In October 2025, Braun signed a five-year, $125 million extension.
Though it’s often considered an overpay, Braun’s contract is referenced with talk about Podz because they are both guards who lack the size and athleticism to become superstars but impact the game on both ends.
Anyway, Podz signed for less than Braun, as he got $110 million over five years.
On Monday, Podz simply looked like the better player.
Podz had 18 points, seven rebounds, five assists, zero turnovers and a game-high plus-33 plus/minus. Braun had nine points, four rebounds two assists, three turnovers and a minus-13 plus/minus.
Podz has more ball-handling and playmaking talent than Braun. Where Braun closes the impact gap is by being a more effective on-ball defender.
If Podz gets better at on-ball defense, it will be hard to argue that Braun is in the same tier of player as him.
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