The Warriors are for real, and Sunday's proof came from everything that happened around Yaxel Lendeborg's career-high 37 points against the Clippers.
Two nights earlier, in a win over the Lakers, Lendeborg had six points, five turnovers and fouled out. He said it himself afterward: "I had no impact on the game whatsoever (on Friday), and then the depth came in, and they took care of everything." That's a rookie telling you, in his own words, that depth is what's actually winning these games for Golden State right now.
Then came Sunday, and the same guy who'd just admitted to having zero impact two days earlier dropped a career-high 37 on 13-of-19 shooting with six threes. He chased 40 so hard down the stretch that he missed three straight attempts, let a comfortable lead shrink back to eight, and got pulled by Steve Kerr because of it. Lendeborg can clearly have a 37-point night. Whether he's a reliable 30-point scorer who makes winning reads instead of hero-ball ones is a different question, and anyone saying otherwise after one hot half is kidding themselves.
Rating
RatingGolden State won this game with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both sitting out, and still got 17 points off the bench from Brandon Williams, 21 from De'Anthony Melton on six made threes, and a complete game from Brandin Podziemski, who finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists after a slow start. That's three different guys doing damage with the two best players in street clothes. A team that can lose its franchise cornerstone and a veteran defender to rest and still win by double digits has real depth.
Melton matters more here than the highlight reel suggests. A healthy, productive Melton gives Kerr a second and third shot-maker who doesn't need Curry on the floor to get free looks, and that's the kind of depth this roster was supposed to be scraping together all along. If this stretch was meant to be a bridge, the bridge is holding up better than it had any right to.
RTGNone of this should turn into a verdict on the Clippers. LA led after the first quarter before the Warriors took over, and the Clippers have been playing without Kawhi Leonard, who's been out since late October. A team missing its best player dropping a fifth straight game is just physics. Blaming the Clippers' record on effort or culture while Leonard's out is lazy analysis.
The real question has always been whether Golden State's success depends on Lendeborg being great every night, and Sunday answered that by accident. When he went cold chasing his own numbers, the Clippers nearly climbed back into the game; when the bench just played basketball, Golden State pulled away. The case for the Warriors should rest on the depth. It doesn't need saving by a last-second buzzer-beater from a twenty-four-year-old who just admitted he doesn't always trust himself out there.
