The Golden State Warriors entered their matchup against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday shorthanded, missing key veterans Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. But their absence did little to slow down their rookie teammate. Yaxel Lendeborg delivered a historic performance, dropping 37 points to help GSW secure a 124-112 victory. However, what should have been a comfortable finish nearly turned into a nervy affair.

And it all started when Lendeborg let his Warriors teammates talk him into chasing a personal milestone. The 24-year-old already had scoring performances of 26, 26, and 31 points behind him. Against the Clippers, he took things up another level. The rookie finished with 37 points. But there was external pressure on him to reach the 40-point mark.

“I’ve never been a stat chaser in my life,” Lendeborg said after the game (via NBC Sports Bay Area & California on YouTube). “Falling into peer pressure like I did just now was pretty much bad on my part. I’m a guy that loves ethical hoops. I’m a guy that loves efficient basketball, and I didn’t do that for the last 2-3 minutes, so that’s bad on my part. Next time, I definitely won’t do that again.”

Lendeborg revealed how teammate De’Anthony Melton wanted him to reach the 40-point milestone, adding:

“I think BP was shooting a free throw. And then Melton, it’s all Melton’s fault guys, by the way. But De’Anthony Melton went up to me and said, ‘Hey, man, you need to get 40. You’re three points away.’ And I’m like, ‘Nah, man. It’s all good.’ And he just peer-pressured me into doing it. So, I honestly just, he said he’s going to give me the ball. And he literally like, was holding it just to give me the ball.

“And I’m like, ‘All right, fine. I’ll shoot it.’ And I missed, you know, but I tried to tell him, ‘No, no, no.’ And then Will came over here, ‘You got to do it. You got to do it.’ So, everybody was just egging me on, and I kind of just fell into it. But I know next time I’mma just play in the flow of the game, ‘cause they came out of me like four threes in a row, and we almost lost the game because of that. So, next time I’m never doing that again.”

The trouble began late in the fourth quarter. Yaxel Lendeborg drained a 27-foot step-back three-pointer with 6:36 remaining to move to 37 points. With the Golden State Warriors holding a healthy advantage, the opportunity to reach 40 became difficult to ignore, especially after his teammates started encouraging him.

Lendeborg launched three more attempts from beyond the arc, hoping to complete the milestone. None found the net. Meanwhile, the Clippers took advantage of the Warriors’ sudden offensive struggles and responded with a 13-0 run, cutting the deficit to just eight points. A game that appeared firmly under control suddenly had some life infused in it.

The Warriors eventually held on for the 124-112 victory, but the sequence offered Lendeborg a valuable lesson. Despite the late-game detour, there was no taking away from another remarkable performance. His 37 points marked the highest single-game scoring total by a Warriors rookie since Stephen Curry scored 42 against Portland on Apr. 14, 2010.

The achievement also adds to an extraordinary opening stretch for Yaxel Lendeborg. He became the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 to average at least 20 points and nine rebounds across his first five career games. He has averaged 22.6 points and 9.2 rebounds during that stretch while also contributing as a playmaker.

His earlier 31-point performance was historic in its own right. The rookie added 12 rebounds and six assists, becoming the first Golden State rookie since Curry in Feb. 2010 to record at least 30 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in a single game.

That production has quickly changed the conversation around the Warriors’ rookie. What initially looked like an encouraging start has become a legitimate Rookie of the Year case. The Warriors certainly need that kind of production while dealing with a depleted roster.