Rudy Gobert felt a little frustrated during Saturday’s Thunder-Timberwolves game. (AP Photo/Andy Clayton-King)
Rudy Gobert’s tenure with the Minnesota Timberwolves isn’t going according to plan. He may have hit rock bottom on Saturday.
In the second quarter of the Timberwolves’ game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday, Gobert received a flagrant 2-foul after colliding with Thunder wing Kenrich Williams.
The kerfuffle began when Gobert tripped over a fallen Williams while jumping for a rebound. Gobert fell to the ground himself, after which Williams pushed his legs out of the way to get up and run down the court. Gobert responded by clearly stretching his legs to trip Williams.
Williams reacted as expected, and soon a crowd was trying to end an unbalanced shove match.
The result of the game: a sack for Gobert and a technical foul for Williams. Williams took one of two free throws while D’Angelo Russell took a single free throw for the technician.
Gobert finished the game with six points on 3-of-3 shooting with four rebounds in nine minutes played. He started Saturday averaging 13.6 points, 64.5% shots from the field, 11.8 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game.
The Timberwolves have bet heavily on Gobert this summer, trading four first-round picks, a pick swap and a bevy of players for the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year. It was hoped Gobert and Minnesota star Karl-Anthony Towns could be the rare big men to co-exist on the court, but the result so far has been an 11-11 record and ninth-place finish in the Western Conference ahead of this weekend.
Towns is currently out for several weeks with a calf injury. That gave Gobert a little more leeway, but the Timberwolves had to figure out how to deal with neither on Saturday.