“It’s remarkable the impact he’s making on these games in the first couple weeks of the season,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It changes everything. On a night like tonight without Steph, we score 124 points and Yax is the main reason we are high powered.”

Lendeborg is averaging 22.3 PPG in his first seven NBA games and has emerged as a strong Rookie of the Year candidate in a draft class filled with more heralded players. His scoring prowess has helped Golden State get off to a 4-3 start despite having a roster depleted by illness and injuries.

Lendeborg admitted that he took several ill-advised threes late in the game after two of his teammates encouraged him to try to reach 40 points. He missed all of them, which helped the Clippers cut into the lead, and said he learned from the experience and won’t do it again.

“I’ve never been a stat chaser in my life,” Lendeborg said. “Falling into peer pressure like I did just now was bad on my part. I’m a guy that loves ethical hoops. I kind of didn’t do that for the last two or three minutes.”

There’s more on the Warriors:

• Curry was unavailable due to right knee injury management, while Green was out because of bilateral low back injury management. Both are expected to return tonight against Phoenix, while Al Horford played on Sunday and will likely be given the night off, Slater tweets. Kerr said those decisions are made by VP of player health and performance Rick Celebrini (Twitter video link). “Today was the better day to give them time to recover coming off that trip,” Kerr told reporters before Sunday’s contest.
• Gui Santos was given increased playmaking responsibilities after Curry and Jimmy Butler got hurt last season, but Kerr is encouraging him to take a different approach to that role this year, per Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area. Kerr believes the team’s increased talent level has reduced the need to try to make something out of nothing on offense. “Last year you had to be a little wild at times to try to force things because we didn’t have enough. We have enough now,” Kerr said. “… We can’t force the issue, and I think sometimes he is forcing the issue, but he’s perfectly cut out to play the style we’re playing, because he’s got a lot of skill.” 
• Knee tendinitis forced Santos to miss the second half of Sunday’s game, according to Slater (Twitter link). Kerr plans to rest him tonight and then reevaluate his condition.