New footage shows leaked audio from Christian Braun's dunk on Gobert

It has been an up-and-down campaign for the Minnesota Timberwolves so far this season. An opening night loss to the Lakers was followed up by two wins in three nights against the Kings and Raptors. Since then, the Wolves have been trading losses and wins.

The inconsistency is easy to understand. Minnesota was one of the most consistent squads in the league last year due to heading into the year with basically the same roster as the previous season. This go around, the Timberwolves are trying to figure things out with their new group on the fly.

Having so many things to learn has led to some frustration for this group, and that emotion manifested itself in the form of a brief altercation during Minnesota's Friday night win over the Denver Nuggets. Those who watched the game remember the sequence that occurred with around five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

As Christian Braun drove to the hoop, he attacked the shot blocker in Rudy Gobert and threw down a vicious two-handed slam over the big man. After getting up for the dunk, Braun was feeling the excitement and opted to take a couple of steps closer to Gobert and chest bump him. That turned out to be a poor decision, as Gobert appeared to put an arm across Braun's neck to throw him back a few feet.

Russell Westbrook challenged Gobert after Braun's dunk

From there, tempers flared and others got in on the action. Russell Westbrook ran up to Gobert to defend his teammate, which was captured on social media and went viral following the game. It was unclear what exactly was said in this moment by anyone, until recent film surfaced that uncovered some of the conversation.

@Legendz_NBA on X posted a video decoding the conversation between Gobert, Westbrook and others. Russ supposedly told Gobert, "don't do that s---," to which Rudy responded by asking "what are you gonna do?" Aaron Gordon then proceeded to call out Gobert, shouting at him, "you got dunked on!" As they are walking back to the bench, Westbrook also applauded his teammate, shouting some explicit language in support of Christian Braun.

It seemed that the only problem Gobert had with the play was the extra step Braun took toward him after dunking on him. Dunking on someone is of course fair game, but getting in their face afterward will likely be seen as a step too far by many players. Most will probably feel a hit to their pride if an opponent decides to humiliate them over a bad play.

Nothing too much to see here, just some normal back-and-forth by hard-nosed competitors. We should expect nothing less from some of the most decorated athletes in the association in Rudy Gobert and Russell Westbrook.