Los Angeles (AFP) - The Minnesota Timberwolves booked an NBA play-in clash with the Los Angeles Lakers in extraordinary style Sunday, rallying to beat New Orleans 113-108 after center Rudy Gobert was yanked from the game for punching a teammate.
"Absolute wild one," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said after his team snatched the No.8 spot from the Pelicans on the final day of the regular season.
The win means the Timberwolves can advance to the playoffs with a victory over the Lakers, and even if they lose on Tuesday they will get a second chance against the winner of the play-in game between the Pelicans and the Oklahoma City Thunder.
With so much at stake, things were going badly for the Timberwolves early, and they didn't cope well.
They trailed by 12 when a heated exchange between Gobert and teammate Kyle Anderson during a second-quarter timeout saw the French center take a swing at Anderson, the players having to be forcibly separated.
Jaden McDaniels was also lost for the game after punching a wall in frustration, with US media reporting he had broken his right hand.
"Emotions got the best of me today," Gobert said in a tweeted apology after the game."I should not have reacted the way i did regardless of what was said.
"I wanna apologize to the fans, the organization and particularly to Kyle, who is someone that i truly love and respect as a teammate."
The Timberwolves had promptly pulled Gobert from the game, with president of basketball operations Tim Connelly calling his behavior "unacceptable" in a statement.
"I really haven't dug too far into the root cause of it," Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said shortly after the game."But guys were just frustrated – we weren't playing well, we weren't sharing the ball, we looked sluggish.
"Veterans can get upset too, so I don't want to be too hard on him," he added of three-time Defensive Player of the Year Gobert, "but obviously it's not something we're going to be able to tolerate here."
Anderson couldn't pinpoint a reason the situation escalated.
"We all want to win the game, we've all got a competitive nature," he said."You know maybe at the time our heads just weren't in the same place.
"Tempers flare, you're in the middle of a game, a game we want to win, a huge one, it is what it is.Shit happens."
Locked in on winning
He said it took him no time at all to put the incident behind him.
"I'm locked in on winning the game," he said."That's what I woke up in the morning thinking, that's what I came to the arena thinking.I'm too mentally tough for anything to get me off the path of walking out of here with a win."
Finch meanwhile said the incident that reportedly left McDaniels with a broken hand reflected the "immaturity" that has dogged his team through the season.
"Certainly immaturity has been one of our issues all season," the coach said."Immature at the wrong times.Probably points to why we're 3-9 or 3-10 against teams we should be better against.
"But those games are gone now," added Finch, whose team came through with the help of 30 points from Karl-Anthony Towns and 26 points and 13 rebounds from Anthony Edwards.
"We've got to focus now on what we've got, and I guess we've got the Lakers."
