Well, everything seems just about normal in Minnesota. Cool, calm, collected.
There are major stakes in the final regular season game between the Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans. The winner will secure the season series between the two teams and likely take the eighth seed. The loser will take the ninth seed.
New Orleans could potentially climb to the sixth seed if both Los Angeles teams were to lose, or the seventh if the Clippers were to lose and the Lakers win.
The Clippers, at the time of this story, were in a tight game with the Suns. A Clippers loss and Warriors win in Portland would give the Warriors the fifth seed and a matchup with the Suns.
The point is, there’s a lot at stake. And it appears the pressure is cracking the Timberwolves and their less-than-popular star(? fraud?) center Rudy Gobert.
In a timeout, he and “Slo-Mo” Kyle Anderson — who crushed the Warriors in a stunning, 99-96 Timberwolves win in San Francisco on March 26 — were seen getting visibly upset with each other.
Gobert, ever the mature voice in the room, decided it wise to punch Anderson. He was shoved by teammate Taurean Prince and backed away from Anderson, letting his teammates and coaches separate the scuffle.
The consequences? The Timberwolves, in the middle of the game, sent Gobert home.
Again, there are massive stakes involved. A win over New Orleans would at least give them a 7-8 matchup and a chance to punch their playoff ticket with one win in the play-in tournament. A loss would mean they’d need to win two games to make the playoffs.
As a reminder, the Timberwolves, in a display of limitless basketball IQ this offseason, traded four first-round picks and a future first-round pick swap, along with Malik Beasley, Patrick Beverley, Jarred Vanderbilt, Leandro Bolmaro and the draft rights to Walker Kessler to acquire Gobert.
If you want to have some fun, may we suggest pausing the video above and going frame-by-frame to watch the horror in their teammates faces after Gobert throws the punch. It is excellent, brilliantly idiotic stuff.
