WATCH: Warriors’ Steph Curry makes Lakers’ Luka Doncic touch earth with nasty ankle breaker originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers faced off in a thrilling season opener just a week prior, an encounter that may have ignited a rivalry. Throughout the game, rookie sensation Yaxel Lendeborg and Luka Doncic engaged in a competitive battle.
Doncic managed to outshine Lendeborg, effectively welcoming the newcomer to the NBA arena. After the match, the Lakers star clarified that it was all in good fun and simply competitive banter.
“He was talking crazy … I knew that was going before I got it in my hands. I work on those,” Doncic mentioned.
The rookie stood his ground against the established player, confronting the challenge boldly and earning considerable respect among his teammates. It speaks volumes about Lendeborg’s character that he continued to press against a player of Doncic’s stature given the circumstances. Lendeborg was given a technical foul and later shared what he had said to the Lakers star during the game.
“I was telling him he sucks. He can’t score on me. You talking, you can’t score on me. I said it the whole game. I said a couple cuss words obviously, you know, that’s why I got the technical and all that. But I was letting him know because he was laughing and talking all this because of that one foul call, and his only bucket was a banker from half court. Like, I know that it’s a team sport. He had 28 on us as a team. Me, I took my matchup personally,” Lendeborg explained.
In their next encounter on Friday night, Lendeborg’s future Hall of Fame teammate, Steph Curry, retaliated against Doncic by executing a dazzling move that left him off balance.
“Steph Curry is a bad, bad man. Jeez,” NBA insider Brett Siegel tweeted.
At this stage in Curry’s career, executing a play like that is nothing short of remarkable, underscoring his exceptional prowess. Each time he can create such space to leave a defender scrambling, it highlights just how talented he is.
The four-time NBA champion ignited a scoring run by dropping Doncic and making the subsequent shot. Doncic, however, answered back with a challenging three-pointer on the next possession, but that didn’t overshadow Curry’s impressive move. By the way, Doncic has quickly become one of the least favored players among Warriors supporters right from the season’s onset.
