Lakers Chase a Perfect Summer League Run Against Yaxel Lendeborg and the Warriors in Vegas Semifinal

The Las Vegas Summer League has one unbeaten team left, and it’s not the roster stacked with lottery picks everyone circled back in July. The Los Angeles Lakers head into Saturday’s semifinal at 4-0, the only team in the field that hasn’t lost, and they’ll have to keep that run alive against a Golden State Warriors squad that fought through a tiebreaker just to get here. Tip-off at the Thomas & Mack Center is set for 8:30 p.m. ET, streaming on Prime Video, with a trip to Sunday’s championship game on the line.

Golden State needed every bit of help it could get to reach the semis. The Warriors closed group play at 3-1, but their point differential of plus-6.3 was the deciding factor that separated them from the pack and secured the No. 4 seed. It’s a fitting résumé for a team that has looked erratic — capable of blowing teams out on one night, undone by scoring droughts on the next — but has the horses to hang with anyone in Vegas.

The Rematch Nobody Expected to Matter This Much

This is actually the second meeting between these two rosters this month, and the first one wasn’t close. Back on July 3 at the California Classic, Golden State’s Summer League squad throttled the Lakers 104-72, with Yaxel Lendeborg going a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor (4-of-4 from three) for 19 points, six assists and five rebounds in just 22 minutes. Will Richard chipped in 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting in that same blowout. Cameron Carr, despite the lopsided score, still found his footing with a team-high 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting, including 5-of-11 from deep — an early signal that his jumper would translate no matter the score.

Carr, the No. 24 overall pick out of Baylor, has been the story of the Lakers’ run in Vegas. He opened the Las Vegas portion with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting in a win over Oklahoma City, playing through a toenail issue, and has been the headline scorer for a Lakers team that’s found four different ways to win. He hasn’t done it alone — second-year forward Adou Thiero, back from a wrist scare that limited him at times, has been the engine underneath. Thiero dropped 20 points, four rebounds, three steals and two blocks with zero turnovers in that same Thunder win, going 8-of-14 from the field and finishing a team-best plus-13. For a player who appeared in just 25 games as a rookie while averaging 1.9 points, that kind of two-way impact has been the biggest surprise of the Lakers’ Summer League.

Lendeborg, meanwhile, has been every bit as good as advertised for a No. 11 pick who arrived with four years of college seasoning at Michigan. He’s been Golden State’s engine on both ends — a 6-foot-9 forward with a 7-foot-3 wingspan who can initiate offense, defend multiple positions and rebound like a big. He opened Las Vegas play with 21 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in a win over Dallas, followed with 14 points, four assists and three steals in a win over Oklahoma City, then posted 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals in a loss to Memphis. Across the sample, he’s been the most complete player on the floor in nearly every game he’s suited up for, and Golden State will need another one of those performances to slow down L.A.’s balanced attack.

What the Numbers and the Betting Market Say

Oddsmakers see this as a true coin flip that’s leaning Lakers. Los Angeles opened as roughly a 1.5-point favorite, with the moneyline hovering between -118 and -125 depending on the book, while Golden State sits in the +100 to +105 range as the road underdog. The total has moved around the 180.5 to 181.5 range, reflecting two rosters that play fast but can go cold in stretches, as Golden State’s uneven group stage showed.

The number makes sense given the résumés. An unbeaten team facing a squad that needed help just to make the bracket is going to draw slight public and market confidence toward the 4-0 side, even if Golden State has the higher offensive ceiling when Lendeborg and Richard get rolling. The Warriors’ plus-6.3 differential says they can blow open a game in a hurry; the Lakers’ unbeaten record says they’ve found a way to win close ones and win big ones alike.

Prediction and Best Bet

Both teams have shown they can win in bursts, but Los Angeles has done it more consistently across four games, and Thiero gives them a two-way weapon Golden State doesn’t have a clean answer for. Carr should keep getting his shots against a Warriors defense that has had lapses, while Lendeborg will need a monster night just to keep this one within reach.

• Prediction: Lakers 88, Warriors 82
• Best Bet: Lakers on the moneyline

The unbeaten record isn’t a fluke at this point — Los Angeles has answers at multiple spots on the roster, and that depth should be enough to send them to Sunday’s championship game still without a loss.