San Antonio Spurs supernova center Victor Wembanyama threw his elbow into Minnesota Timberwolves center/forward Naz Reid’s throat in the second quarter of Game 4 on Sunday night. Wembanyama was ejected from the game, but the Spurs still played excellently without his 7-foot-4 presence, so the Timberwolves had to claw their way to a win and even the series at 2-2.
Wembanyama’s status for the rest of the Western Conference semifinals was the biggest story of the NBA playoffs for about 12 hours before the NBA decided against further punishment. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year returned for Game 5 on Tuesday night, and he played like he had a point to prove: 27 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, and three blocks.
The Spurs won easily, 126-97, to go up 3-2. The reflex is to attribute the Spurs’ Game 5 trashing to a Wembanyama revenge game, but Timberwolves All-Star guard Anthony Edwards had a different theory.
“We know what we’ve got to do in order to beat the team,” Edwards said in his postgame presser. “I think everything starts with Jaden McDaniels - trying to keep him out of foul trouble - because he’s so important to the team. He’s so important to us. It hurts everybody when he gets in foul trouble. Some tough calls being made out there against him, man, so it’s not too much we can say, but we try to avoid him getting in foul trouble. And if we can do that, we give ourselves a great chance to win the ball game.”
McDaniels, a 25-year-old forward, was a force during the Timberwolves’ first-round series against the Denver Nuggets. He posted a career-high 32 points on 52% shooting and 10 rebounds in Minnesota’s Game 6 win over the Nuggets to eliminate them.
Against San Antonio, McDaniels has been neutralized. He’s collected five personal fouls in three of the five games, including in Game 5 on Tuesday, and had four personal fouls in the other two. His series field goal percentage is down from 49.4% against Denver to 40.5% against San Antonio.
Edwards unexpectedly returned for Game 1 of this series after suffering a hyperextended left knee and a bone bruise suffered against the Nuggets on April 25, the same day the Timberwolves lost Donte DiVincenzo to a torn Achilles for the foreseeable future. Ayo Dosunmu is also playing through ankle and calf injuries. Minnesota needs McDaniels on the floor both because of his impact on the game and because depth is running thin.
The Spurs and Timberwolves will play Game 6 at Target Center in Minneapolis on Friday night.
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