The Minnesota Timberwolves were involved in a ton of drama on Tuesday night. Not only was there drama before a bucket was even scored, but there was drama until the final buzzer, as the Wolves pulled out a close one against a Golden State Warriors team with no Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.
Now, should the Timberwolves have blown this team out? Yes. However, teams, even good ones, always fall into traps like that. We also don't want to forget that the drama from two minutes in could have rattled some players. The Warriors had two of their players ejected, whereas the Wolves had one, so it's almost like they had more of a reason to go get the win.
The drama from two minutes in was something we don't see often. While it was worse than this situation, the last time I can think of something similar happening was LeBron James and Isiah Stewart. This situation, however, saw some actual contact. Draymond Green ended up putting Rody Gobert in a chokehold for some odd reason, almost like he had just been waiting to do that the last few years.
Rudy Gobert's comments about it summed it up pretty nicely.
"Before the game, I was telling myself that Steph is not playing, so I know Draymond is going to try and get ejected," Gobert told reporters after the game. "Every time Steph doesn't play, he doesn't want to play. He'll do anything he can to get ejected... I did whatever I could to keep my cool and then show that I wasn't making the situation worse, and I do hope that the league is going to do what needs to be done because that's just clown behavior."
Gobert, an elite defender, and Green have a past, and they have history. Green called Gobert a crybaby when he played in Utah, and so on. So, you can imagine, with their feud, that Green has been waiting to put his hands on Gobert. He is a repeat offender, so should we be surprised about this? He is dirty, whether it be chokeholds, kicking in the groin, or punching his teammates in the face.
Gobert did right by not doing anything. Had he done something, anything, not only would he be ejected from that game, but he would also likely get suspended for a few games like, hopefully, Green does. It was all wild and crazy, but this is the NBA, and every game is a new episode of the best TV series ever. You never know what is going to happen.