Gobert returns from suspension, the Timberwolves face ultimate litmus test - The Athletic

MINNEAPOLIS — It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

When the Minnesota Timberwolves backed up the Brinks truck to acquire Rudy Gobert in July, no one internally expected them to be walking into Game 84 of the season needing a win just to make the playoffs. Sure, there were questions about how this two-big lineup was going to work in the postseason, but few believed that they wouldn’t at least win a bunch of games in the regular season before they got there.

Gobert’s defense and rebounding were supposed to give the Timberwolves everything they needed to take another step forward after an unexpected run to the playoffs last year. He was the one who was supposed to protect the rim the way the Wolves couldn’t and finish defensive possessions with rebounds to start the team heading in the other direction. Brandon Clarke, the thinking went, was not going to be able to dominate a series the way he did last year with Gobert in the paint.

But this is Minnesota, land of 10,000 GM and coaching changes, where things rarely go according to plan. And now here they are, Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards and Chris Finch, walking into Target Center on Friday night to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. Win at home against a young team with nothing to lose and the Wolves will head to Denver to open a playoff series against the top-seeded Nuggets on Sunday. Lose to a team that went a surprising 40-42 this season and beat the New Orleans Pelicans in their first Play-In game on Wednesday and the offseason starts mind-numbingly early for a team that is built to win now.

“Obviously our goal was to be at the top of the West,” Gobert said on Thursday. “That was the goal early in the season. But you have adversity, you have things that doesn’t go how you want them to go and it’s part of life. But the beauty of it is that we are two games from having home court and we’re two games from being out. So it shows how close we were from having a really successful season.”

They weren’t supposed to miss Towns for 52 games with a calf strain. They weren’t supposed to have quite this much trouble acclimating to Gobert’s unique playing style. Jaden McDaniels wasn’t supposed to break his hand while accidentally punching a cement wall. And Gobert certainly was not supposed to get himself suspended for the Wolves’ first Play-In game, an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, for punching Kyle Anderson. In the huddle. During a game.

Gobert rejoined the team at practice on Thursday and addressed the media for the first time since the suspension. He is still dealing with limitations from the back spasms that hampered him against New Orleans and said that he would not have been able to play in the Lakers game even if he was not suspended.

“I tried to be a superhero, but I couldn’t move,” Gobert said. “If I’m out there and I can’t move, I can’t be myself.” He is listed as questionable for the game with back spasms, but most expect Gobert to try to play with so much on the line.

One thing the Timberwolves made clear on Thursday, and in the fallout from the fight for most of the week, was that there were no lingering hard feelings. While confrontations between teammates are a common occurrence during a long season, they rarely spill out into the public the way they did on Sunday. Anderson said afterward that it wasn’t the first time he’s been swung on by a teammate over the years. And Gobert said his respect level for Anderson remains high.

“I still love Kyle. He’s still my brother,” Gobert said. “I tell people, sometimes you fight with your family. Sometimes you fight with people that you have a lot of love and respect for. It’s life. No one is perfect. Mistakes happen and then you grow and you move on.”

The bullseye has been on Gobert’s back all week due to his throwing of the punch at Anderson. The Wolves were furious with Gobert for crossing a line and hitting Anderson. It was the team’s most important game of the season, and there was their polarizing big man losing his cool in front of 19,000 fans to touch off an altercation that eventually spilled into the locker room at halftime.

President of Basketball Operations Tim Connelly called Gobert’s punch “unacceptable” and found the act egregious enough to send him home from Target Center in the middle of the game.

As disappointed as the Wolves were in Gobert’s act, there was some concern as they debated how to handle it that Gobert would be viewed as the lone culprit in the confrontation, team sources told The Athletic. When they looked at the situation in full, according to sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, they knew Gobert had to be disciplined for his behavior. But there were also conversations behind the scenes about Anderson’s conduct toward a teammate who was trying to play through debilitating back spasms.

Ultimately, Anderson was not punished. But there have been numerous conversations with him about the situation. Finch said he considered the case closed and felt confident the team was locked in on beating the Thunder.

“It’s all good,” Finch said. “I thought we said it was over and done by 10 o’clock on Sunday, and it was.”

It had better be, because if the Wolves fall flat against the Thunder and miss the playoffs entirely, it will qualify as one of the biggest disappointments ever for a franchise that has been synonymous with dysfunction. Rarely have the Timberwolves entered a season with such high expectations.

Crazily enough, their goals are still there to be had. If they get a win, they would be heavy underdogs in the playoffs against the Nuggets, who have been easily the most consistent team in the West this season. But a series win would not be out of the question, not with Towns playing as well as he is right now, Gobert in the middle, Edwards on the wing and a rejuvenated Mike Conley running the show.

Before the Wolves can even entertain the thought of putting together an upset of the Nuggets, they have to get past the Thunder, which will be a taller order than it may initially appear.

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The Timberwolves are so big they have to duck their heads when they walk into the Basilica of St. Mary, the towering house of worship located just a mile down the road from Target Center.

The Thunder are small enough that getting past the “You Must Be This Tall to Ride” sign for the Orange Streak rollercoaster at the Mall of America’s amusement park isn’t a given.

Exaggeration is useful in framing Friday night’s win-or-go-home matchup in the Play-In Tournament as a way of illustrating the cavernous gulf between basketball philosophies that will be on display. The Timberwolves will bring two 7-footers into the frontcourt with Gobert and Towns, a grand experiment that has been underwhelming for much of the season.

The Thunder have often used a lineup this season with no one taller than 6-6, though the 6-10 Jaylin Williams has become a regular starter and the 6-10 Dario Saric has been getting more minutes of late.

If the Timberwolves are to prevail and earn the No. 8 seed, they will have to use their size to punish the smaller Thunder at every turn. What a fitting fulcrum on which this frustratingly erratic season teeters. If their bigs can play big, flex their muscle and fulfill the roles the Wolves envisioned when they traded for Gobert in July, they will qualify for the playoffs in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2002-03 and ’03-04 seasons.

If Josh Giddey, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder spread the big men out, get out in transition and run circles around Towns and Gobert in the halfcourt, the Wolves will be headed for disaster — a trip to the lottery, where they will give their pick to Utah as part of the Gobert trade.

“We’re going to play our best players,” Finch said on Thursday. “We’ve got to play to the strengths of our best players.”

For most of this season, that has meant getting Edwards going downhill to set up his reliable step-back 3-pointer. But he took a nasty fall against the Lakers on Tuesday and went just 3-of-17 from the floor, including missing all nine of his 3s in a narrow loss that kept them out of the No. 7 seed. He is dealing with a sore left shoulder and was seen in the locker room in Los Angeles with ice packs on his right hand and his knees (a common maintenance maneuver for players) as well.

Edwards has been receiving treatment on his ailments for the last two days and was not listed on the team’s injury report on the eve of the game. He said on Thursday that he would be ready to go against the Thunder and refused to use the injuries as a reason for his bad offensive night in Los Angeles. He said there is one key for the Wolves to win.

“I got to play better,” Edwards said.

The Wolves also need to punish the smaller Thunder with their size. They are not quite as big as they used to be thanks to losing a pair of skilled, 6-9 players in McDaniels and Naz Reid (fractured wrist). But if they cannot exploit their size advantage in this game, with so much at stake, it will only increase to a deafening decibel level the already loud scrutiny of their decision to go so big. Towns is still working his way back into top shape, but his game has gotten better and better over the last week. He scored 30 points to help rescue the Wolves after Gobert was ejected against the Pelicans, then was the best player on the court for the first three quarters against the Lakers before foul trouble threw him off his rhythm.

“Foul trouble has derailed some really good moments of play so far,” Finch said, “and we’ve got to try to avoid that.”

Gobert will have to patrol the paint and try to limit Gilgeous-Alexander’s drives and floaters in the lane. It will not be easy. Then again, nothing has been for the Timberwolves this season.

“We still control our destiny, so we have one opportunity to get into the playoffs,” Gobert said. “And then, once you’re in the playoffs, you’re in there, so anything can happen.”

 (Photo by David Berding / Getty Images)

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