What did Sunday night’s Game 5 win take for the Minnesota Timberwolves?
“Some heart,” Rudy Gobert said to the Target Center crowd after the madness had ended.
Where do we even start?
Perhaps the part where this should have been less close than it ended up as with a sharp elbow to the face?
With 8:39 left in the second quarter, Victor Wembanyama teed off on Naz Reid out of frustration. A 36-34 game favoring the Wolves at that point in time seemed to open up the clouds.
“KICK HIM OUT” chants rained down at Target Center as Wemby initially didn’t know what getting flagrant foul 2 meant. With his trek back to the locker room, Luke Kornet was needing to play heavy minutes out of necessity – a big man the Wolves have had a lot of success against, especially wiht Rudy Gobert on the floor.
Compound one of the best defender ever being out of the rest of the game, a great start out of the gate had any reasonable person thinking that the Wolves were going to sleep walk to a 2-2 series tie.
As with many of the situations throughout the season, the Wolves unfortunately thought they were going to as well.
Cue the regular season music!
At the end of the third quarter, the Wemby-less Spurs were 62% on their twos, while the Wolves were 44% on theirs.
Leading by eight in the second half at their peak, the Spurs and DeAaron Fox killed the Wolves drop coverage. Fox got to whatever he wanted in the mid range, and missed rotations made the undisciplined Gobert-led defense show its warts.
But similar to the situations that would shake out over the 82-game schedule, a certain number 5 would go on to throw the cape on.
Regaining the lead with four minutes left, Anthony Edwards went 7-12 and notched 18 points in the second half.
In a game where Julius Randle struggled with six turnovers, Jaden McDaniels was 6-15 from the field, and Ayo Dosunmu was 3-12, Anthony Edwards on .75 knees cam through.
Game 5 in San Antonio begins knotted up 2-2.
Up Next
A game at a reasonable time!
With the New York Knicks sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers, tipoff for Game 5 in San Antonio on Tuesday will be at 7:00 PM CST. It’s extremely doubtful Wembanyama will be suspended, but you never really do say never. The league will certainly review it, but what follows will likely be a fine at worst.
