MINNEAPOLIS — Like he has so many times for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert towered over their game on Friday night against Dallas, dominating the offensive glass, protecting the rim with authority and setting cinder block screens to spring Anthony Edwards for good looks.
If the Wolves are going to barge into the top four in the Western Conference playoff field over these final 25 games, Gobert will be a big part of it. The problem is, one of the team’s most important players is in constant danger of missing games because of the flagrant foul points he has accrued throughout the season.
Gobert put up 22 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks in Minnesota’s 122-111 victory over Dallas as the Wolves opened the post-All-Star break sprint to the postseason. But he also picked up a Flagrant-1 in the second quarter for a foul on Marvin Bagley III, which gives him seven flagrant points this season. That means he is likely to now miss the game on Sunday against Philadelphia to serve a one-game suspension, the second time he’s been suspended for flagrant points this season.
Gobert was battling with Bagley under the basket when he flailed his arm and made contact with Bagley’s neck area. Officials reviewed the play and determined that Gobert’s action constituted “an unnecessary flail,” per crew chief Josh Tiven and assessed him a Flagrant-1.
Gobert said he plans to appeal the call.
“Hopefully they’ll look at it and they’ll see that it was just an accident,” Gobert said. “Maybe they can switch it to a tech. We’ll see.”
Because the play occurred while the ball was in play, it is highly unlikely that the league would convert the flagrant to a technical foul.
If the league rules in his favor, he would avoid a suspension … for now. But he would still be one foul away from a one-game suspension. If he gets to eight flagrant foul points, he will be suspended for two games, and every foul after that would be another two-game absence. Considering the Wolves entered the night 4.8 points per 100 possessions better with Gobert on the floor, that is an ominous proposition.
Both Gobert and coach Chris Finch expressed frustration in the way the center is officiated, believing that Gobert is repeatedly hit in the head and neck area without drawing the flagrant foul penalties that are assessed to him.
“The thing with that is that I get hit in the head almost every game, and I never get flagrants,” Gobert said. “But when sometimes, inadvertently, I hit somebody in the head, they never miss. They’re always very hard on me with that, especially when it’s not intentional.”
Finch called the decision to give Gobert a flagrant on the play “harsh.”
“Seemingly every time Rudy gets clocked in the head and the face, which is quite a bit, it’s always just, ‘Ah that’s just two guys, play on. It’s nothing,’” Finch said. “But yet the other way around, we seem to be penalized for it.”
It is a significant loss for the Wolves (35-22), who are trying to push up the standings in the West so they can have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Gobert is the anchor of their defense, and he has been getting more and more involved offensively as the season has gone along. He was 9 for 11 from the field and grabbed 10 offensive rebounds against the Mavericks. He leads the league in field goal percentage (70.6) and is fourth in rebounding (11.3).
The Wolves certainly could use him against the 76ers, whether or not Joel Embiid plays. Embiid is listed as out for the Sixers’ game at New Orleans on Saturday with a shin injury. It would seem unlikely that he would play on the second night of a back-to-back, but either way, the Sixers will have bruising center Andre Drummond on the floor. Drummond had 14 rebounds in the loss against Atlanta on Thursday.
“Guys are coming at me every night, hitting me in the face, grabbing me,” Gobert said. “They purposely foul me. That was like five times tonight. Run into my knees trying to box me out. All these plays are dangerous, and I’m fine with it, you know? But it’s really hard when you get super penalized, and people can do anything without accountability on me. So hopefully they look at that and make it a little more fair.”
Whether Gobert is out there or not, the Wolves still have Anthony Edwards. After being honored for winning the MVP of the All-Star game, Edwards erupted for 40 points, 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter to hold off the pesky Mavericks.
The Wolves let an 18-point lead get away, finding themselves in a tie game with 6:55 to play after a floater from Tyus Jones. Finch put Edwards back into the game, and he made 6 of 8 shots, including two 3-pointers, burnishing his credentials as the best clutch performer in the league. He is shooting 59.5 percent from the field in clutch time this season, and the Wolves outscored the Mavs by 11 points down the stretch to win their third straight game.
Naz Reid added 21 points, 7 rebounds, four assists and a thunderous dunk for the sixth-place Wolves, who are a game behind Denver (36-21) for third in the West.
Coming off of his banner weekend in Los Angeles, with the Kobe Bryant trophy in his hands, Edwards thinks anything is possible.
“It means a lot, especially to bring it back to Minnesota,” Edwards said. “This is where it started, and they’ve been rocking with me since the beginning. I love these guys, love my teammates, it’s like a brotherhood to me at this point, and the fans is like family, so I appreciate the love.”
Those comments were timely given a social media kerfuffle that occurred after the All-Star game, when a video circulated of Edwards speaking to Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson. It appears in the video as if he tells Johnson that “I can’t wait to come home,” leading nervous Wolves fans to speculate that he was referring to playing for his hometown Hawks. When asked about it after the game on Friday night, it was clear Edwards was not at all cognizant of the conversation swirling around the video.
“I’ve been knowing Jalen Johnson for a long time, that’s my dog,” Edwards said. “We was just having a conversation. It’s really nothing to clear up. I’m happy where I’m at.”
Edwards, who is under contract for the next three years, has always spoken fondly of Finch, his teammates and the Twin Cities, an area that he has called his second home. He has made more money with the Wolves than he could have made anywhere else and, most importantly, has enjoyed significant team success with back-to-back runs to the Western Conference finals.
He fully intends to make another deep run this season.
“I feel like if we play every team how we play the best teams in the league, I feel like we’ve got a chance to go 25-0,” Edwards said, putting the cart before every horse in the West. “It always starts with me. But if we come out and play every team like we play the top teams in the league, I feel like we’ve got a great chance.”