Yaxel Lendeborg’s Next Test Is Bigger Than Replacing Curry’s Points

Yaxel Lendeborg has averaged 21.7 points over his first 12 NBA appearances. Golden State now has to ask considerably more of that promising start. Curry’s newly confirmed injury leaves the Warriors preparing for games without him, and the rookie’s scoring is one part of the remaining offense that has already produced. How much of the broader work can Lendeborg take on with it?

The Warriors announced Thursday that a new MRI found an oblique abdominal injury for Curry, who will be checked again in two weeks. That is a date for another evaluation, not a guarantee that he will return then. It also gives Golden State an extended absence to prepare for, making Lendeborg’s role a roster issue as much as a scoring issue.

The latest glimpse came Wednesday in Houston. Lendeborg finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds in a 115-108 loss, making 9 of 19 shots and 5 of 8 free throws. Curry played six minutes and scored three points. Lendeborg supplied enough production to keep the game from becoming an immediate offensive surrender, and his rebounding gave Golden State another way to finish possessions.

That performance was encouraging. It was not evidence that one rookie can recreate the whole Curry package.

The scoring totals offer only a partial comparison. Lendeborg contributed 25 points in Houston, but the rest of the starting group supplied uneven production after Curry left early. Horford finished with two points and Green with seven.

The Warriors need a workable offense around Lendeborg rather than a sequence of possessions in which a rookie is asked to compensate for every missing contribution. His promising scoring average does not settle how that offense should be organized.

Lendeborg’s Houston line was valuable precisely because it included more than points. Ten rebounds matter for a Warriors group that may have to ask more of its frontcourt while the roster remains short-handed. Al Horford scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting. Georges Niang added five. Charles Bassey provided seven points and six rebounds in 13 minutes, including three offensive rebounds.

Bassey’s work offered Golden State second chances, but it also illustrated the broader assignment. The Warriors cannot afford to treat every possession without Curry as a request for Lendeborg to manufacture a difficult basket. They will need his scoring, yet they will also need him to rebound, defend his position and keep the offense from narrowing into a series of individual attempts.

The absences around him make that burden less tidy. Jimmy Butler III is out after right ACL repair, and Moses Moody is out after left patellar tendon repair. Kristaps Porziņģis was listed as not with the team, without an injury designation.

Bassey was listed as probable with left toe soreness. Those are different roster circumstances, but together they reduce the number of established options available for balancing creation and frontcourt labor.

Wednesday did provide some support elsewhere. Melton made three 3-pointers and scored 11, while Green supplied seven assists. That passing and shooting give the Warriors work to distribute around Lendeborg. The rookie does not have to become their only source of points for the increased responsibility to be substantial. Rebounding, scoring and making sound decisions within the group would already represent a considerable assignment.

The schedule will test that arrangement quickly, beginning Friday at San Antonio and continuing with games against New Orleans, Dallas, Memphis, Boston and Sacramento before Curry’s reevaluation point. Lendeborg will have opportunities to show that his early scoring travels beyond a small sample.

He will also face the less glamorous demands that a 21.7-point average leaves unanswered: securing rebounds when the offense stalls, creating without overburdening every possession and helping the big-man rotation survive its own absences.

Lendeborg does not have to replace Curry for Golden State to remain competitive. He does have to become a steady part of a broader solution. His 25-point, 10-rebound night suggested that his value can stretch beyond scoring.

The coming games will ask whether that breadth can hold while Podziemski, Melton, Green and the remaining frontcourt players absorb their portions of the workload. One rookie can help cover Curry’s absence. He cannot be the entire covering.

Sources

Warriors: Thursday Curry MRI announcement

NBA: Thursday official availability report

ESPN: Wednesday Warriors–Rockets game (background)

San Francisco Chronicle: Curry absence and roster context