The Golden State Warriors are Summer League champions. One night after knocking out the previously unbeaten Lakers, Golden State erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 94-90 in Sunday night’s championship game at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, and rookie Yaxel Lendeborg was named MVP of the final.
The teams went to halftime tied before Memphis pushed ahead by 10 through three quarters. Golden State took the game over from there, and Lendeborg delivered the biggest shot of the night — a three-pointer with under two minutes to play that put the Warriors up four for good. The No. 11 overall pick finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals in 23 minutes, capping a summer that began with a 21-10-6 debut against Dallas. Deivon Smith matched him with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting off the bench.
Memphis had a chance to force overtime in the closing seconds, but Olivier-Maxence Prosper turned the ball over on the inbounds pass. Cameron Boozer led the Grizzlies with 19 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals, and Cedric Coward — whose 28 points carried Memphis through Saturday’s semifinal — added 19.
It is the franchise’s first Summer League title since 2013, when a Vegas squad beat Phoenix in the inaugural championship game. The banner itself is a July trinket, but the week that produced it was not: Golden State finished 5-1 in Las Vegas, claimed the last semifinal spot on point differential, then beat the tournament’s top seed and its best remaining roster on consecutive nights. Lendeborg closed the run having answered the only real question about his summer — whether he could carry offense against length, not just against overmatched group-play frontcourts.
For fantasy purposes, Lendeborg is the takeaway. A No. 11 pick who just averaged a near double-double against the best competition Summer League offers, took the biggest shot of the title game and won final MVP is going to open his rookie season with real minutes in the Warriors’ frontcourt rotation. He belongs in all dynasty rookie drafts and is worth a late flier in deeper redraft leagues; Smith’s shot-making off the bench keeps him on the two-way/waiver radar, but the path to consistent NBA minutes is much thinner.
