Victor Wembanyama picked up his first career ejection Sunday night.
The Minnesota Timberwolves took full advantage.
Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves, after the Spurs lost their star player early on, rallied back late in the fourth quarter to beat San Antonio 114-109 in Game 4 on Sunday at the Target Center. That tied the series up 2-2 ahead of a critical Game 5 on Tuesday night.
Edwards had 36 points in the win, 16 of which came in the fourth quarter alone.
“We’ve got to capitalize when Wemby got [thrown] of the game,” Edwards said on NBC. “We came out thinking like, it was going to be easy, but those guys are really good even without Wemby. We just had to play hard, and I just had to take it upon myself to try to get us the win.”
Victor Wembanyama ejected after elbowing Naz Reid
Wembanyama was thrown out of the contest early in the second quarter on after he threw an elbow that drilled Naz Reid right in his chin. The incident led to a wild scene at the Target Center in what was a critical matchup for the Spurs, who carried a 2-1 second-round series lead into the contest.
Wembanyama went up to try to grab a rebound early in the second quarter and got caught up with Jaden McDaniels. Suddenly, after appearing to gather his balance, Wembanyama turned and threw his right elbow hard. He hit the Timberwolves’ Naz Reid directly in his chin, which sent Reid down to the court instantly.
Naturally, fans in Minneapolis were livid.
The slow-motion replay of the elbow looked much worse than it did in real time.
Officials separated the players easily and diffused the situation. After a quick review, they determined Wembanyama’s actions were worthy of a Flagrant 2 foul, which led to his automatic ejection.
Wembanyama, however, was unaware of what a Flagrant 2 foul meant. He actually had to ask Spurs veteran Harrison Barnes on the bench. He then high-fived the entire Spurs bench, turned and clapped at them several times and then walked into the tunnel. His night was done.
Wembanyama finished with four points and four rebounds in the contest. He shot 2-of-5 from the field in his 12 minutes on the floor.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson addressed the incident after the game and didn’t condone Wembanyama’s actions. But he didn’t think it was intentional, either.
“It’s getting to a point that if the people htat are in charge of controlling the game and protecting the physicality of the game don’t do that, then at some point he’s going to have to protect himself,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said, via the San Antonio Express-News’ Tom Orsborn.
Timberwolves pull away late to grab win
Anthony Edwards took over in the fourth quarter to lift the Timberwolves to the win. He dropped 14 of the team’s first 18 points in the final period and got them back in the lead by a point after a huge 3-pointer just past the midway point.
Edwards put in a second-chance bucket directly through Luke Kornet a few minutes later to push the Timberwolves to a two-possession lead, too, and then Rudy Gobert came through with a two-handed slam to cap a 9-2 burst. That was more than enough to complete their comeback and secure the five-point win.
Edwards went 13-of-22 in the field to get his 36 points in the win for the Timberwolves. Reid had 15 points and nine rebounds off the bench, and Gobert had 11 points and 13 rebounds.
De’Aaron Fox finished with 24 points for the Spurs, though he went just 1-of-6 from the 3-point line. The Spurs only made six 3-pointers in the contest. Dylan Harper put up 24 points and six rebounds off the bench, and Stephon Castle added 20 points.
Wembanyama will be back on Tuesday night for the Spurs. But the Timberwolves got a win when they needed it the most while Wembanyama was sidelined.
Just like that, we’ve got a series once again.
