The Golden State Warriors won 134-114 on the road at the Denver Nuggets to earn their first game of the season.
Here is look at three things we learned from the (1-3) Warriors win over the (1-2) Nuggets…
Yaxel Lendeborg is the real deal
Forget the sniping back and forth at Luka Doncic on his NBA debut, Yaxel Lendeborg is the real deal. His ability on the basketball court can speak for itself.
Lendeborg led the Warriors in scoring with 31 points. This added to his 26 in the loss to the Suns. His 57 points in the past two games is highly impressive.
Ahead of the season the Summer League MVP was highly touted, with Kevin Garnett among the big names talking him up. But surely nobody expected him to be this good, this early?
Lendeborg led the Warriors in rebounds along with his points scoring, and considering the lack of size on the team. Amid a difficult start to the season for Golden State, Lendeborg is a major bright spot.
Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets are in crisis
It is only early in the season, but the vibes are off with this Denver Nuggets team, and star player Nikola Jokic in-particular. Jokic is only averaging 24 points to start the season. By his standards, this would be his lowest PPG since 2019-20.
But more concerning was his decision to hit out at Nuggets home fans for booing the team, for a second game in a row.
He hit out: “We got booed at our first home game, and I think those fans who booed us, they don’t need to come anymore. If you guys follow us, you know that we never quit and we’ve come back from much worse situations. So if they ask me, they are not welcome anymore.”
The Nuggets are back on the road for the next two games, before hosting the Trail Blazers. Something needs to happen to repair the relationship between Jokic and Nuggets fans, before the situation gets worse.
Steph Curry avoids worst ever start
Stephen Curry has avoided going 0-4 for the first time in his career since being drafted to the team in 2009.
This win does not mean the Warriors are contenders, but it does stop the bleeding. The longer the team waited for a win, the more desperate they would become.
With Stephen Curry on the team, you can never be down for too long. The four-time champion was perfect from the field with 8-8 including 3-3 from three, to score his 24 points to help propel the win.
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