{"id":588011,"date":"2026-02-07T09:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T09:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T09:12:15","slug":"rudy-gobert-harshly-calls-out-timberwolves-players-after-loss-to-pelicans-no-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588011\/","title":{"rendered":"Rudy Gobert Harshly Calls Out Timberwolves Players After Loss To Pelicans: “No Accountability”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> blew an 18-point second-half lead to lose 119-115 to the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> at Target Center on Friday. The Timberwolves have been on the losing end against some of the weaker teams in the NBA one too many times this season, and star big man Rudy Gobert<\/a> called out his teammates in his postgame media session<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played the right way first half, for the most part,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cWe play hard and we up 18 and come out to the third and we jog back. We don\u2019t contest shots. I mean, there [is] just no effort, and we\u2019ve seen that many, many times this year, the last few years since I\u2019ve been here. And we always know it\u2019s coming, and when it comes, there\u2019s no sense of urgency, no accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think at some point if the players don\u2019t have accountability, someone else got to have accountability for the players,\u201d Gobert continued. \u201cI\u2019m on straight effort, I\u2019m just talking straight effort. I\u2019m not even getting to the basketball side of things. Mistakes are part of the game, but the effort to me for a team that wants to play for a championship, it\u2019s unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pelicans came into this game with a 13-40 record. The Timberwolves should have put their foot on their throats when they were leading in the second half, but got lax. They have now dropped to 32-21 on the season and are sixth in the West.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves\u2019 last five defeats have come at the hands of the Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, Golden State Warriors<\/a>, Chicago Bulls<\/a>, and Utah Jazz<\/a>. The Warriors are the only team in that group that\u2019s currently in the top 10 in the standings in either conference, and they were without Jimmy Butler<\/a> that night.<\/p>\n

Gobert was asked about the effort being there when the Timberwolves go up against the big teams, but then disappearing against the weaker ones. The three-time All-Star thinks that is down to them not taking these games seriously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese games matter,\u201d Gobert stated. \u201cThese games impact the way we\u2019re going to finish the season, who we\u2019re going to face, if we\u2019re going to make the playoffs. This is who we are as a team. We have to start understanding that. Our offense, of course, it matters, but the barometer for our success is on defense and our effort. And when we have that, we win almost every night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s insane how when we just do that we win every night,\u201d Gobert added. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s crazy that we\u2019re not able to just focus on that, and obviously, when we focus on that, the offense comes easy. I mean, offense to me is just sharing the ball, which we don\u2019t do very well, but I accept that. But the defense is a straight effort, and it\u2019s got to be everybody. No one should get a pass for not playing defense, because guys are too talented nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pelicans went 43-80 (53.8%) from the field and 15-34 (44.1%) from beyond the arc here. One could point to the likes of Trey Murphy III<\/a> hitting some ridiculous shots, but that\u2019s what happens when you allow players to find their rhythm.<\/p>\n

Gobert, who had 12 points (5-12 FG), 16 rebounds, two assists, three steals, and two blocks against the Pelicans, believes the coaching staff has to hold players accountable as they\u2019re not doing that themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with ourselves, but it seems like we don\u2019t have that,\u201d Gobert said. \u201cSo I think at some point, from the coaches, yeah. From the coaches I think. It\u2019s not an easy position for a coach to take guys out of the game. It\u2019s not something that you want to do, but I think if the players don\u2019t show any efforts, at some point, no matter how talented we are as a team, if you don\u2019t have that, we just can\u2019t be a winning team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts with me,\u201d Gobert continued. \u201cIf I\u2019m not showing effort, take me out the game. And everybody else gotta follow. Our best players, our leaders, if you don\u2019t show any effort, don\u2019t matter if you score 50, we\u2019re just not gonna win. So at some point, we\u2019re not mature enough to have that accountability ourselves. That might be the solution. And I guarantee you that when we come back on the court, we\u2019d show effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

You struggle to recount the last time a player called out the team in this manner. The fact that Gobert felt the need to say all this out loud is quite interesting.<\/p>\n

Will this prove to be the kick up the backside that this Timberwolves team desperately needed? Well, we\u2019ll wait to see if there is any kind of reaction when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> next at the Target Center on Sunday at 3 PM ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Minnesota Timberwolves blew an 18-point second-half lead to lose 119-115 to the New Orleans Pelicans at Target…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-588011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116028581590832820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}