The Warriors found their best LeBron James alternative. Yaxel Lendeborg just led the summer team to the championship in Vegas, winning the MVP in a direct head to head matchup with the 3rd overall - Cam Boozer. These two went back and forth in college this past February, when Yax outscored Boozer 21 to 18, but Cam was the one celebrating the win at the end. So we have to start from the beginning to see exactly how this one folded out. Playing for these diamond rings, the Grizzlies struck first. Cedric Coward hits the 4th triple for Memphis for an 8 point advantage early. On the other end, Lendeborg was struggling to find his rhythm, missing his first couple of shots. And he threw this rushed up pass in transition which didn’t hit the target. Speaking of missing the target, Boozer missed everything on this 3. Finally, 6 minutes into the game, the lottery picks got the space to go 1 on 1. Yax did a solid job defending on the initial shot attempt, but Cam stayed aggressive, picked up his trash and scored the deuce. 2 minutes later, Booz got a lot of space opened towards the rim again, only this time… Oooh this would’ve been a throwdown if the assist was better. So Yaxel decided to do it all by himself on this possession, starting with the steal. That was a veteran play right there. The strip and then the steady layup using his big body over the smaller defender. The Warriors used an 8-2 run to finish the quarter strong and get to a single point deficit. However, Cam Boozer opened the 2nd with a bang! And he was there to put up a hand in Yaxel’s face, which proved to be enough to cause a miss. But 2 minutes later, he couldn’t do anything to stop Lendeborg. The pump fake and the burst along the baseline for the tough and-1 finish. That was impressive! On the very next possession, watch how Yaxel is following the play, he’s laser focused on the ball, gets the offensive board and lays in the 2nd chance through the contact. On the other end, Cam was eager to respond. After missing his first 3 attempts from downtown, Boozer finally nails this one from the left wing. It was all tied at the half, with Lendeborg looking slightly better with 9 points on 50% efficiency. He was also able to contain the 3rd overall to just 7 points on 3 of 9 shooting from the field. And he threw the first punch coming out of the break. But, Cameroon stayed awake on the next play to pick up the loose ball, make the heads up pass and follow the action to make sure it ends up with points for his team. The Grizzlies were up and running. And to bump their run to 11-2, Boozer didn’t mind shooting a contested 3 from deep. Cam got hot in the 3rd period, scoring 10 of his 19 points to put his team up by double digits right before the end of it. He was money in this quarter. Knowing that it’s now or never, Yaxel opened the final stage by stripping Cam’s pocket on this backdown right here. And he got a favorable mismatch on the other side but just couldn’t hit the turnaround floater. But he stayed with it, got the offensive board and found Will Richard who buried the 3 pointer. This leads us to an electric 1 on 1 sequence by the high profile rookies on both ends! It’s going to get cranked up in here! Watch the excellent court awareness by Boozer here. As soon as he secures the defensive rebound, turns around and throws the pass to Prosper for the easiest points of the night. Cam stood his ground against Lendeborg on this penetration, but Yaxel took the ball out to Smith and provided him a lot of space with this rock-solid screen to shoot a practice like jumper. Was this an offensive foul? At least Cam Boozer thought so.. Regardless, with little over 2 minutes to play, Yax decided to call his own number. Lendeborg gets hot at the right time, going on a personal 7-0 run to turn the 3 point deficit into a 4 point lead! Amazing. But their joy didn’t last long as Cedric Coward responded big time, hitting his 5th - 3 of the night, cutting the deficit to one. And the Grizzlies did a great job on the defensive end, with Boozer drawing the offensive foul with a minute remaining. The Warriors answered with a solid defensive play of their own, surrounding Boozer with 3 guys under the basket. But the Grizzlies retained possession, allowing Cam to have another go at Yaxel. Little did we know that things are about to turn chaotic…
