{"id":27148,"date":"2026-05-11T08:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/27148\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T08:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T08:53:23","slug":"wembanyama-ejected-from-2nd-quarter-of-spurs-wolves-for-elbowing-reid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/27148\/","title":{"rendered":"Wembanyama ejected from 2nd quarter of Spurs-Wolves for elbowing Reid"},"content":{"rendered":"

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Midway through this rugged second-round NBA playoff series<\/a> for the San Antonio Spurs, in the first of what could well be many memorable postseason runs for Victor Wembanyama, the 22-year-old phenom was growing weary of the physical play he\u2019s been facing from the Minnesota Timberwolves.<\/p>\n

With one frustrated swing of his right elbow on Sunday night, Wembanyama changed the course of Game 4<\/a> \u2014 and perhaps the series. <\/p>\n

Ejected after striking Timberwolves center Naz Reid in the throat early in the second quarter, Wembanyama was confined to watching his teammates admirably overcome his notable absence before fading down the stretch in a 114-109 defeat that evened the series at two games apiece.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a whole lot of grabbing and pushing and shoving, but that\u2019s a part of the game,\u201d said Spurs rookie Dylan Harper, who matched his career high with 24 points. \u201cThe next man has got to step up. I think we all did a great job of controlling what we can control.\u201d <\/p>\n

Wembanyama was swarmed by Reid and Jaden McDaniels after grabbing an offensive rebound following a missed 3-pointer. With McDaniels tugging on his left arm, Wembanyama snapped and jabbed his right arm back toward Reid \u2014 and struck him square in the neck. <\/p>\n

Television replays showed Harper behind the scrum with a stunned expression, his mouth agape. McDaniels quickly bearhugged Wembanyama to try to avoid escalation, and the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama took a seat on the bench while the officials reviewed the video with the fans at Target Center chanting, \u201cKick him out!\u201d <\/p>\n

The foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 for excessive contact above the neck. That penalty triggers an automatic ejection, immediately swinging the balance of a pivotal game in the series toward the Timberwolves. The Spurs had the lead after their 115-108 win in Game 3 on Friday<\/a>. <\/p>\n

When the penalty was announced, Wembanyama appeared to ask teammate Harrison Barnes, \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/a> He slapped hands with each of his Spurs teammates on his way off the floor, with the arena sound system blaring Michael Jackson\u2019s \u201cBeat it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama finished with four points, four rebounds and three fouls in 13 minutes. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad he took matters into his own hands. Not in terms of hitting Naz Reid \u2014 by all means, being very clear about that,\u201d Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019m glad Naz Reid is OK, and I didn\u2019t want him to elbow him, but he\u2019s going to have to protect himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson raised a concern beyond simply how the Timberwolves have been playing Wembanyama, who was the first overall pick in the 2023 draft. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of physicality that opponents have been trying to impose on him since his first days in the league, combined with the lack of protection from the referees, is really disappointing,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd to a certain extent, it\u2019s starting to become downright nauseating.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Reid, Julius Randle and McDaniels in their frontcourt, the Timberwolves have had plenty of muscle and tenacity<\/a> to send at Wembanyama, even if he\u2019s been good enough offensively to overcome it<\/a>. He had 39 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the floor in Game 3.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want anyone to get hurt, but you could see the frustration. I could see where he\u2019s coming from,\u201d Harper said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got his back, and I think he can learn from that, and he just knows not to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now the series shifts back to San Antonio for Game 5 on Tuesday, with the league certain to assess the play for potential further punishment, but Johnson dismissed any concern about a suspension.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was zero intent,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Midway through this rugged second-round NBA playoff series for the San Antonio Spurs, in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16616,11691,8,16615,15186,11470,158,7014,11630,163,15187,2733,3044,10601,9,7020,1199,360,7,761,11613],"class_list":{"0":"post-27148","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-dylan-harper","9":"tag-harrison-barnes","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","12":"tag-julius-randle","13":"tag-michael-jackson","14":"tag-minnesota","15":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","16":"tag-mitch-johnson","17":"tag-mn-state-wire","18":"tag-naz-reid","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-basketball","21":"tag-nba-playoffs","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","24":"tag-sports","25":"tag-texas","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-tx-state-wire","28":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116555101152520386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}