Early in the second quarter tonight, Victor Wembanyama, who was being manhandled by multiple players every time he entered the game, tried to spin his way out of a double bear hug from a couple of Wolves, and caught Naz Reid hard on the neck with an elbow. The referees called this a flagrant foul two, which resulted in an immediate ejection for the Spurs best player and emotional leader. It was a move that didn’t look intentional at all to me, but that was not the judgment of the officials, who had
an interesting evening calling the game.
The Spurs almost overcame Wemby’s absence with some solid performances with their trio of elite guards, as Dylan Harper had a solid night on both ends of the court, Steph Castle had another great night, and De’Aaron Fox stepped up late in the game with timely scoring. Luke Kornet had a good outing as the sole big, protecting the rim while he was in. The Spurs had to go small for long stretches of the game and that’s when Minnesota took advantage of the Spurs lack of rim protection. Carter Bryant couldn’t get going tonight, and he committed a few bad fouls, which limited his minutes. The Spurs tried to control Anthony Edwards by double teaming him every time he touched the ball, but he’s just too good to completely stop, as he took over the game in the fourth quarter with 14 points and brought them back from an 8 point deficit to take the the lead with 3 minutes left. Rudy Gobert made some key plays in the comeback as he took advantage of the Spurs lack of size to grab timely rebounds and put them through the iron circle thing bolted to the backboard, a thing that he’s mostly unfamiliar with.
The Spurs almost pulled off an improbable rally in the last 30 seconds, but Minnesota was able to avoid a turnover as Ayo Dosunmu somehow bounced the ball off his trailing leg and kept it in bounds to keep the Spurs from having a shot to tie it up with 10 seconds left. Despite their valiant effort, the Spurs couldn’t quite eke out a win tonight, and this series is going to at least six games. It resumes on Tuesday at 7:00 PM in San Antonio, which is now a must-win game for the Silver and Black squad.
Observations
- Because this game was broadcast over the air, I watched it on my antenna-connected TV, and also on my streaming network provider on my computer. The stream was consistently about 15 seconds behind the antenna feed, which got really distracting. I get it that for technical reasons that the streaming content is behind the antenna feed, but modern TV broadcasts are already in a digital format. Fifteen seconds seems excessive.
- Oh no, Reggie Miller. Having him announcing a game makes it a lot less fun to watch.
- The Spurs leave Gobert open on the perimeter for a reason.
- The Timberwolves started the game with a lot of energy and physicality, tying it up at 10 in the first 4 minutes. The offensive rebounding of the Wolves is a problem for the Spurs. The possession isn’t over until the defense gets a rebound.
- Terence Shannon is a master of theatrical defense because he relies a lot on flopping to sell charge calls. It’s too bad, because he is actually a good defender, but almost every time he draws a charge, he’s still moving into the path of the driving player.
- When Wemby went to the bench, the Wolves went on a 14-3 run and briefly took a 5 point lead with two minutes left in the first.
- Dylan Harper went on a heater in the last couple of minutes of the first, while the Timberwolves exploited the Spurs zone and uncharacteristically hit three-point shots. The Wolves led 34-30 at the end of the first quarter.
- Early in the second quarter, Wembanyama was called for an insane flagrant penalty two after being manhandled for about 5 seconds by McDaniels and Naz Reid, and tried to spin out of the hold and caught Reid with an elbow. It didn’t look intentional at all, but it looked bad, and I could see a flagrant one, just based on how bad it looked. But a flagrant two and ejection was just insane and unjustified.
- Is kneeing the shooter in the shoulder a foul? Apparently it is, but you need to call for a review for the refs to call it, and even then it wasn’t a shooting foul. When does the gather begin? Nobody knows. Thanks to Julian Champagnie’s two charity shots, the Wolves led 60-56 at the half.
- The Spurs survived Wemby’s absence for most of the second quarter, they trailed by two when he was ejected, and the deficit only grew by two by halftime. One troubling indicator was the five missed free throws by the Silver and Black, if they had made those, they could be ahead at the half even with all of the tough things that happened and odd officiating of the first half.
- I really like Carter Bryant, but he sure gets called for a lot of fouls.
- The Spurs started the third quarter with increased intensity, taking the lead back from the grasping and leaping Wolves. Fox got mauled when Dosunmu dived at his knees to contest a rebound, but somehow that was just a common foul. He had to sit about five minutes, but looked fine after he returned to the game, using the stepback and speed to get a couple of quick baskets for San Antonio.
- Edwards was held under control for most of the third quarter, while the Wolves’ offensive production came from unexpected sources, as two consecutive corner triples from Shannon cut the Spurs lead to a pair of buckets. The Spurs survived a late surge from Minnesota and led 84-80 with a quarter to play.
- Naz Reid went down with an ankle injury early in the fourth, and the Spurs increased their lead to 8 with a Fox triple. You can never feel comfortable against a team that has Anthony Edwards, who can go crazy with scoring at any time, and on cue, a five point barrage from the Ant Man cut the lead to just three points, leading to a quick Mitch Johnson timeout.
- The Wolves retook the lead with Anthony Edwards doing everything, and Rudy Gobert taking advantage of the double team to roam at the hoop and get easy offensive rebounds and a couple of timely putbacks.
- The Spurs were down by 7 with 30 seconds left and cut the deficit to one score with 20 seconds left. The Spurs were close to getting the ball back with 13 seconds, but a lucky bounce of Ayo Dosunmo’s leg allowed the Timberwolves to maintain possession and hold of for a 114-109 win.
Up next
The Spurs will play Minnesota in the Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night, at 7:00 PM because it’s the only game of the night after the Knicks swept the Sixers.
