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Yaxel Lendeborg, there are a few things you have to learn.
Never take a charge from LeBron James. Never challenge Victor Wembanyama at the rim. And never trash-talk Luka Dončić.
The last sin is the worst. The consequences are worse than a bruise. Or a swatted shot. Dončić punishes his perpetrators over and over again, leaving them mortified and stammering after games.
Or at least, that’s how this usually goes.
Lendeborg committed the last sin in the Lakers’ 127-105 win over the Warriors in their season opener on Wednesday. The Warriors’ rookie ran his mouth. The Slovenian superstar ran him over. No biggie. We’ve seen this play out so many times before.
But what happened next was rare. The rookie didn’t show remorse. Instead he doubled down.
Here’s how it all happened.
Things heated up after the rookie fouled Dončić on a pump fake with the Lakers up, 53-48, and less than 3 minutes left in the second quarter. Dončić made two free throws. Lendeborg went to the bench.
Doncic then made a 15-foot jumper and pointed at Lendeborg. Warriors coach Steve Kerr put him back in the game.
They continued trash-talking each other. Lendeborg was assessed a technical foul with 22.2 seconds left. Dončić then made a 49-foot shot with 1.4 seconds remaining and approached Lendeborg, chirping at him.
Dončić did what he does. He feeds off of perceived disrespect. It fueled a 13-4 run for the Lakers in which Doncic scored 10 points.
He finished with 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals in 30 minutes and the highest plus-minus (+31) of anyone on the court in the Lakers’ 22-point rout. He had more than twice as many points as Lendeborg (12).
Lendeborg poked the bear, like many have before. (Just ask Matas Buzelis, who unleashed a 51-point performance from Doncic last March after chirping at him. His lesson? “Probably not to talk to him,” Buzelis said after the Bulls’ 142-130 loss to the Lakers.)
But that’s where the script changes.
Lendeborg didn’t drop the bear-poking stick, Instead he picked it up and started beating the mammal over the head with it.
“I had a lot of respect for him…seeing him kill people all the time,” Lendeborg said. “But then being in there firsthand and just watching all the whining and complaining, I lost all respect, man. That was awful.
“Me getting frustrated it’s not about the foul being called. It’s about him complaining the entire game. And then you get the foul call, congratulations bro. And then you talk to me like you did something great, bro? Come on, dog. That’s just weak. It kind of threw me off for a little while because, like I said, I had so much respect for him. Gone, man. Gone.”
Cue the eerie music.
The Lakers play the Warriors again in a little over a week on October 30. This could get ugly for Lendeborg. Don’t be surprised if Doncic, who led the league in scoring last season with 33.5 points per game, erupts for twice that number.
Lendeborg just fed Dončić his version of basketball mana. He just gave him a performance-enhancing drug. He poured fuel over the fire.
“I think everybody knows when somebody starts talking, you get a different me,” Doncic said in his walk-off interview with ESPN.
And that was before Lendeborg sounded off in his postgame interview.
He had more to say, too.
“I was telling him he sucks,” Lendeborg continued when asked what he told Doncic. “He can’t score on me. You talk and you can’t score on me. I said it the whole game. I said a couple of cuss words, obviously, that’s why I got the technical and all that. But I was letting him know because he was laughing and talking and all this because of that one call. His only bucket on me was a banker from half court.
“I know it’s a team sport. What did he have? He had 28 on us as a team. Me, I took my matchup personally. Tried not to get called on the fouls. Tried my best. I was thinking about playing him with my hands behind my back to see if that worked. Probably still would’ve gotten a foul called.”
You can almost imagine Dončić sitting at home and listening to this while rubbing his hands together.
Still, Lendeborg’s Warriors teammates had his back.
Said Draymond Green: “Everybody’s going to be like, oh man, he shouldn’t talk to Luka, you shouldn’t talk to Luka. And I disagree with that s—t 1,000%. If you’re going to go talk to somebody, you talk until you can’t f—king talk no more. And if he busts your ass, guess what? You play him again three more times and you go back at his ass again.”
Added Steph Curry: “He set the table for himself to have to show up — and I like that.”
Well, this is going to be fun.
In his first game of his NBA career, Lendeborg put a target on his back. And he did it against one of the top-four players in the league.
The 24-year-old has moxie. He’s not lacking in confidence. He’s not afraid of anyone.
But come October 30, he should be.