Warriors' Yaxel Lendeborg matches muscle with Cam Boozer in marquee summer matchup
LAS VEGAS - Cameron Boozer is not small. He stands 6-foot-9, weighs 253 pounds and used his muscular physique and abundant basketball skills to become the consensus national player of the year last season at Duke.
On Tuesday, in the second quarter of an NBA summer-league game, Golden State Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg made Boozer look like an undersized defensive back - leading with his left forearm and knocking Boozer off stride while barrelling to the basket for a layup.
That counted as the most memorable play of a tantalizing duel in the desert. Lendeborg (listed at 6-9, 230) and Boozer matched up with each other for extended stretches at Cox Pavilion on UNLV's campus, where the Warriors fell 106-85 to Memphis.
Lendeborg, the No. 11 overall pick in last month's NBA draft, scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds for the Warriors. Boozer, the No. 3 pick to the Grizzlies, bounced back from a scoreless first half to finish with 12 points and seven rebounds.
"Two very talented players and both very physical guys," said Khalid Robinson, the Warriors' summer-league coach. "So it was a fun matchup to watch, and something that's obviously going to go on for a long time in this league."
This high-profile, head-to-head clash drew many familiar faces to Vegas. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr sat courtside for the first time this summer, flanked by general manager Mike Dunleavy and Frank Vogel, Kerr's new top assistant.
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Boozer's dad, two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, also sat courtside, not far from former Warriors center Quinten Post (now a member of the Grizzlies). Lendeborg's mom, Yissel Raposo, was in the first row behind Golden State's bench, wearing her son's No. 1 jersey.
Lendeborg looked like a rookie at times. He occasionally got lost on defense, watching the ball and losing his man - a curious habit in his five summer-league games, especially for a two-time American Athletic Conference defensive player of the year at Alabama-Birmingham (before he transferred to Michigan).
But Lendeborg mostly held his own against Boozer. They frequently covered each other on defense, even if they usually switched on screens and ended up guarding another player.
This wasn't the first time they tangled: Duke beat Michigan 68-63 on Feb. 21, with Boozer (18 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists) and the Blue Devils outdueling Lendeborg (21-7-3) and the Wolverines.
"I enjoyed this one a lot more than the Michigan-Duke game," Lendeborg said Tuesday. "I had more chances to guard him this time, and same with him guarding me. It was a lot more fun going against a talent like that, but it sucks we lost. We'll see him again in the regular season."
On a few occasions, Lendeborg found himself isolated against Boozer on the wing - right in front of Kerr. And, yes, the rookie was acutely aware of the coach who has guided the Warriors to four NBA championships.
"I was very, very conscious of him," Lendeborg said. "One play, I was frustrated and yelled out a couple of curse words, and then I realized, ‘Oh my God, I've got to relax. He's right there.' He kind of heard the bad side, but I tried to keep my composure as much as I could."
Lendeborg showed his strength on one third-quarter play, when he missed a right-handed layup in traffic. Then he corralled the rebound with his left hand - and in one motion scored on a putback.
He also bounced off Boozer a couple of times, offering a striking reminder of their age difference and exposure to the weight room. Lendeborg, who spent six years playing in college, turns 24 in September; Boozer, who spent one year in college, turns 19 on Saturday.
Boozer went 0-for-6 from the field in the first half but began to resemble his dominant college self in the second half, when he went 4-for-6. He crashed the boards with vigor as Memphis pulled away for the easy victory.
One telling stat: The Grizzlies outscored the Warriors by 35 points with Boozer on the court. Lendeborg, who was plus-70 in his four previous summer-league games, was minus-28 on Tuesday.
This marked a distinct reversal for Lendeborg. He entered play Tuesday with the best summer-league box score plus-minus, which estimates how many points per 100 possessions a player adds or subtracts compared to an average player - by a wide margin. Lendeborg led at 15.9, followed by Utah's Darryn Peterson (7.3), Golden State's Graham Ike (7.2) and Boozer (6.2).
But the summer league also has illustrated areas in which Lendeborg needs to improve - namely, his attention to detail on defense.
"I'd probably give myself a C," he said of his defense to date. "I've been missing a lot of off-ball assignments and haven't had many opportunities to guard guys on-ball. So I haven't really been able to showcase my defense as much as I could. But in the regular season I'm going to try to prove I'm a willing defender, and a pretty good defender."
Or, as Robinson said of the team's top draft pick, "Yaxel has done a lot of good things for us, handling the ball and getting downhill in transition. He's shot the ball well. But it's about consistency - doing these things consistently and then stacking winning plays team-wide.
"We can't get bored with the fundamentals. We have to embrace the fundamentals and do them well."
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This story was originally published July 14, 2026 at 7:14 PM.