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The Western Conference Semifinals between the Spurs and the Timberwolves keeps providing memorable matchups. On Sunday, Victor Wembanyama’s first-half ejection threatened to create a throwaway game, but the Silver and Black responded without their best player and battled to the very end before losing a heartbreaker, 114-109. The series will move back to San Antonio for Game 5 tied 2-2.

Surprisingly, considering the event that will be most remembered from this game, the Spurs seemed like the calmer and more disciplined team early on. They played with pace while still involving Victor Wembanyama both on and off the ball, with the pick and roll between the big man and Stephon Castle proving to be effective. On the defensive end San Antonio was not sending as much help as they did in past games but were getting some stops. The main thing keeping the Timberwolves in it in the opening few minutes were second-chance points. Alas, as it has happened often in the postseason, once the second unit checked in, the execution suffered and Minnesota upped the pressure to create turnovers. The momentum was swinging the home team’s way before Dylan Harper, who had a slow, erratic start, showed off his tremendous offensive talent to provide a boost. After one, the Wolves led by four on a surprisingly high-scoring affair.

Both teams quickly started to settle for too many jumpers to kick off the second quarter, but the Spurs were getting the better of their opponent until the incident that changed the game. Victor Wembanyama got an offensive rebound, was fouled, didn’t hear a whistle, and threw an elbow at Naz Reid that rightfully got him ejected. The rest of the half prectably consisted of the Wolves trying to get to the rim as much as possible, with Anthony Edwards attempting to take over. But the Silver and Black responded. Luke Kornet provided some good minutes, and the frenetic pace of the game when they went small favored them. There were some stretches when it seemed like Minnesota would pull away, but San Antonio’s guards always scored a timely bucket to keep up with their opponent, as Chris Finch’s guys fell for the trap of playing rushed. At the half, the Spur still trailed by four.

The circumstances were so favorable for them with Wembanyama out that it wasn’t shocking to see the Timberwolves come out of the locker room feeling a little complacent. The energetic Spurs made them pay for it by causing turnovers, and never looked scared as they hunted matchups and attacked their defenders one-on-one. The isolation-heavy style does not characterize San Antonio, but it worked well and led to Minnesota’s players trying to do the same, with many looking to be the hero of the night, to bad results. When Kornet had to rest, the team suffered from a lack of height, but tried to make up for it with timely traps for Anthony Edwards on defense and pace and aggression on the other end. Improbably, San Antonio won the third quarter and went into the final frame up four.

The chaotic nature of the game didn’t stop until the final buzzer. Edwards went off for 16 fourth-quarter points, and both Naz Reid and Rudy Gobert had good moments on offense, which normally would have meant that the Timberwolves were fully in control. It wasn’t the case. They took the lead with a shade under five minutes to go, but the Spurs’ guards responded a few times to take it back. Even after the home team managed to extend its buffer to seven heading into the final minute, San Antonio continued to fight and got it to three with 21 seconds to go. The deciding factor on what was often a sloppy but always hard-fought matchup was a catch from Ayo Dosunmu on a long inbound pass, as the ball bounced off his leg, allowing him to control it. In the end, despite the Silver and Black’s fantastic effort without their superstar, Minnesota won Game 4 to tie the series.

Game notes

• The Wembanyama ejection is hard to talk about because he absolutely deserved it, but his frustration leading up to it is also easy to understand. Wembanyama takes a beating every game. Opposing teams have stated that it’s their goal to be as physical with him as the officials allow. He had gotten hit with an elbow in a previous play and was clearly fouled on the rebound that led to him throwing the elbow. He could have seriously hurt Reid, so he got the punishment he deserved, but, as Mitch Johnson said after the game, “at some stage, he should be protected. And if not, he’s going to have to protect himself, and, unfortunately, stuff like that happens.”
• The guard trio was terrific on Sunday, stepping up to provide scoring. Fox, Castle, and Harper combined for 68 points. They all had their struggles at times, with Fox’s inability to hit shots in the clutch being the most notable, but they all not only scored but also defended and played with the pace the team needed to have a shot.
• The forwards, on the other hand, struggled. Julian Champagnie missed all of his five threes. Keldon Johnson had three turnovers. So did Carter Bryant, who did not get a favorable whistle at all, as the officials seemed intent on reminding him that he’s a rookie. Harrison Barnes didn’t make much of an impact in his 10 minutes. They all played extremely hard, like everyone else on the team, but didn’t make plays.
• Devin Vassell had a great Devin Vassell game. Even with the three guards dominating the ball, he still managed to log 14 points and three assists while hitting big shots and making some plays on defense. Vassell has settled into a small role in which he has to pick his spots on offense and do a little bit of everything else, and he delivered in the loss.
• Luke Kornet turns into a different player when Wembanyama is not available. He wasn’t having a good postseason in a very limited role, but he gave San Antonio a strong 27 minutes in this one. There were some mistakes, but overall, a terrific “next man up” night for Kornet.
• Anthony Edwards played 40 minutes and had 36 points in 22 shots. That’s a fantastic performance in ideal circumstances, but considering he’s playing through two knee injuries and is dealing with conditioning issues, it’s just insane.

Play of the game

Dylan Harper is going to be a superstar.

Game 5: at San Antonio on Tuesday

The Spurs will look to get a match point at home. Hopefully, Victor Wembanyama will be available and not suspended.

PHILADELPHIA — Karl-Anthony Towns’ transformation has been remarkable.

He recorded 10 more assists in the Knicks’ 144-114 Game 4 bludgeoning of the 76ers on Sunday to finish their series sweep.

Nine of those assists came in the 16 minutes he played in the first half.

His final total could have been much higher, but he only needed to play four minutes in the second half.

Sunday marked the third time this postseason that Towns has reached double digits in assists.

In the regular season, he did it just once.

It is part of a dramatic change the Knicks made ahead of Game 4 of the first round, operating their offense through Towns at the elbow and allowing him to facilitate with the four others on the court cutting and setting screens around him.

That change has unlocked the best version of the Knicks.

“Shout out to our team,” Towns said. “We found a way to, in a way, stabilize our season and do what was needed to adjust to Atlanta. And [we] found ourselves in a better position. It’s a shout-out to the coaching staff for realizing adjustments that needed to be made and also [a] shout-out to me personally that they trusted me.”

The Knicks played it cautiously with OG Anunoby.

It proved to be a wise decision.

Anunoby (right hamstring strain) was out for the second straight game Sunday.

He is still considered day to day, and the Knicks have been optimistic that he won’t miss much time.

Imaging revealed that it is a “very minor” strain, The Post’s Stefan Bondy previously reported.

But with a 3-0 series lead, the Knicks didn’t feel the need to rush him back Sunday.

Now, he has another week of rest before playing again.

Miles McBride, for the second straight game, started in Anunoby’s place and erupted for 25 points.

Knicks fans regularly jeered Joel Embiid with “F–k Embiid” chants throughout the series.

He spoke about that experience — and having his son hear those chants — after Game 4.

“We go on the road, they’re chanting,” Embiid said. “I hate that he hears that, but he has to understand that that’s the way the world is, and you’ve just got to live and understand that there’s going to be negativity, there’s going to be positivity, but you’ve got to go through it, and it’s OK.”

In what has a chance to be one of the most important nights in Jazz history, the Utah Jazz jumped in the NBA Lottery to the #2 spot for the upcoming NBA draft.

Here are the final results, which show all the movement.

Aside from it being a massive night for the Wizards, Jazz, Grizzlies, and Bulls, it was a devastating night for a few teams, but no one more than the Indiana Pacers. The Pacers, in their trade for Ivica Zubac, had a stipulation on their pick that if the pick was top-4 they kept it. But if it fell below 4, they would give it to the Clippers which is exactly what happened. Now, the Clippers, who are without Zubac, find themselves with a #5 pick to build around.

For the Jazz this is a culmination of four years of rebuilding that ends with an extremely satisfying end. Utah will now have one of the tier-1 players from this draft: AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson. The player Utah drafts will be one of their cornerstone pieces and will have the chance to not only play, but be a part of a team that will be competing for the playoffs this season.

The Utah Jazz now have a Sinister Six core: Darryn Peterson (If AJ Dybantsa goes #1), Keyonte George, Ace Bailey, Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Walker Kessler (if he signs). It’s quite the core with a mix of youth and veterans in their prime. With this group, the Jazz will have a chance to be one of the top teams in the Western Conference. Yes, the Thunder and Spurs are going to be difficult to beat, but Utah has the mix of talent, coaching, and depth that could absolutely do the trick.

Now the Utah Jazz look forward to the NBA Draft that be on June 23rd. Let the posturing begin!!

PHILADELPHIA — “Let’s go Knicks,” they roared early as the 3-pointers fell like an avalanche.

“Deuce,” they bellowed after every one of Miles McBride’s seven 3-pointers.

“Knicks in four,” they chanted as the road team piled it on.

Technically, Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals was a road game for the Knicks.

It just didn’t feel anything like one, fans of the orange and blue taking over Xfinity Mobile Arena to watch their Knicks complete a four-game sweep of the host 76ers with a 144-114 decimation on Mother’s Day.

“I used to think Philly was a sports town,” Josh Hart said with a wry smile. “I don’t know if it is anymore.”

It was a Knicks town this weekend.

There was a strong contingent of Knicks fans for Friday night’s Game 3, but they were mostly drowned out by the 76ers supporters until the game was out of reach.

Sunday was different.

Sunday, they owned the building.

Sunday, they made it their home.

The only resistance came from the ear-splitting 76ers public address announcer.

His effort was futile.

It started in warmups, with Knicks fans booing Joel Embiid.

“I thought we were back in the Garden for a second,” Hart said.

To add salt in the wound, a group of Knicks fans brought mini-posters of Mitchell Robinson’s alley-oop dunk Friday over Embiid and tried to hand them out to 76ers fans.

“Man, Mitch did his thing right here, so shout-out to the fans,” McBride said.

Before the series began, Embiid called on 76ers fans to hold on to their tickets and not let it be a repeat of two years ago, when Knicks fans invaded Xfinity Mobile Arena.

The team limited tickets to residents of the Philadelphia area, mirroring the Pistons plan from a year ago in the first round against the Knicks.

They also donated 500 tickets for each game to local community groups.

It didn’t work, as available tickets flooded the secondary market once the Knicks won the first two games of the series at home.

The takeover seemed to anger Tyrese Maxey.

“It absolutely sucks, if I’m being honest. It just sucks,” the star guard said. “That’s really all I can say about it, man. It’s hard. It’s definitely difficult. It’s only one way to put a stop to it and it’s we have to go out there and win these games.

“Just being completely honest, we were better when we played them in the Garden this entire season. I know we lost Game 2 and 1, but Game 2 was better. The regular season was better. I was telling them, it felt louder here for them than it did in the Garden.”

Context matters when breaking down sports.

“A banged-up Joel Embiid lost in the second round of the NBA Playoffs,” sounds like a familiar story, but that’s only if you ignore everything that’s happened over the last two-plus years.

Sure, there was plenty of disappointment after the Sixers were crushed in Game 4 Sunday by the New York Knicks to complete a sweep, but there was also plenty of optimism. They made the second round of the playoffs after a 24-win season. They came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Boston Celtics in the postseason for the first time since 1982. Tyrese Maxey took another leap and VJ Edgecombe had one hell of a rookie season.

And Joel Embiid played basketball. At times, he even played it at an extremely high level. If you weren’t sure that could happen this season, you weren’t alone.

“I thought I was done. That’s the best way to put it,” Embiid said. “I came into this year not knowing where I was going to be, how long I was going to play, if I was even going to play, based on how the knee was the last few years.”

The former MVP played in 38 games this season and eight more in the playoffs. After a rough start, his numbers from his last 29 regular-season games were, well, Joel Embiid-esque. He averaged 29.6, 8.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks in 33.5 minutes a game. He shot 50.9% from the field and 37.6% from three during that span.

Of course, the appendectomy came at the worst possible time, with Embiid trending in a positive direction health-wise and the team beginning to coalesce. When all seemed lost against the Celtics in the first round, Embiid played his guts out in Games 5, 6 and 7 to complete a historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit.

After that, there simply wasn’t much left in the tank. Embiid was dealing with a right hip issue, which he seemed to indicate was a complication from his recent surgery. Remember, he returned just 17 days post-op and it’s a procedure that cuts through muscle. It was pretty remarkable he returned at all, let alone carried his team to a Game 7 victory in TD Garden.

The most positive news from Embiid as his 2025-26 season ends: his knees feel good.

Embiid is optimistic his most recent procedure and work with Dr. Jonathan Glashow will allow him to be more available, something he admits led to a lot of the team’s inconsistencies this past season.

“That’s where I put it on me,” he said, “where I felt like I wasn’t around for much of the season, for a lot of things, and moving forward, understanding what it takes when it comes to my body, and what we have to do as a group to make sure that I get to play every game. I feel like we found that solution, so it’ll be better next year.”

So, this will be an offseason where Embiid gets to work on his game and not worry about rehabbing yet another knee surgery. It’ll take some time to recover from his most recent ailments, but there’s nothing to suggest those will be long-term hurdles.

Aside from his body, Embiid does seem to be in a great place mentally. He sat postgame with his son, Arthur, who looked ready for bed. He was asked a question about his legacy, but it wasn’t something he wasn’t interested in discussing — at least as far as on the basketball court.

“I don’t know. I don’t care,” he said. “I got this beautiful young man. You guys might’ve taken away my chance to put my daughter to sleep. My wife is going to be extremely mad at me.”

Again, there was disappointment, but no anger or finger-pointing or doomerism.

But there was trolling, of course.

“Maybe I got to go to church more so I don’t have those type of things right before the playoffs,” Embiid said. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m cursed. I don’t know. Maybe Philadelphia is cursed. …

“That’s a joke, but, yeah, just got to keep doing the right things over and over and hope that at some point it changes.”

What did Sunday night’s Game 5 win take for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

“Some heart,” Rudy Gobert said to the Target Center crowd after the madness had ended.

Where do we even start?

Perhaps the part where this should have been less close than it ended up as with a sharp elbow to the face?

With 8:39 left in the second quarter, Victor Wembanyama teed off on Naz Reid out of frustration. A 36-34 game favoring the Wolves at that point in time seemed to open up the clouds.

“KICK HIM OUT” chants rained down at Target Center as Wemby initially didn’t know what getting flagrant foul 2 meant. With his trek back to the locker room, Luke Kornet was needing to play heavy minutes out of necessity – a big man the Wolves have had a lot of success against, especially wiht Rudy Gobert on the floor.

Compound one of the best defender ever being out of the rest of the game, a great start out of the gate had any reasonable person thinking that the Wolves were going to sleep walk to a 2-2 series tie.

As with many of the situations throughout the season, the Wolves unfortunately thought they were going to as well.

Cue the regular season music!

At the end of the third quarter, the Wemby-less Spurs were 62% on their twos, while the Wolves were 44% on theirs.

Leading by eight in the second half at their peak, the Spurs and DeAaron Fox killed the Wolves drop coverage. Fox got to whatever he wanted in the mid range, and missed rotations made the undisciplined Gobert-led defense show its warts.

But similar to the situations that would shake out over the 82-game schedule, a certain number 5 would go on to throw the cape on.

Regaining the lead with four minutes left, Anthony Edwards went 6-8 and notched 16 points in the fourth quarter.

In a game where Julius Randle struggled with six turnovers, Jaden McDaniels was 6-15 from the field, and Ayo Dosunmu was 3-12, Anthony Edwards on .75 knees cam through.

Game 5 in San Antonio begins knotted up 2-2.

Up Next

A game at a reasonable time!

With the New York Knicks sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers, tipoff for Game 5 in San Antonio on Tuesday will be at 7:00 PM CST. It’s extremely doubtful Wembanyama will be suspended, but you never really do say never. The league will certainly review it, but what follows will likely be a fine at worst.

Early in the second quarter tonight, Victor Wembanyama, who was being manhandled by multiple players every time he entered the game, tried to spin his way out of a double bear hug from a couple of Wolves, and caught Naz Reid hard on the neck with an elbow. The referees called this a flagrant foul two, which resulted in an immediate ejection for the Spurs best player and emotional leader. It was a move that didn’t look intentional at all to me, but that was not the judgment of the officials, who had an interesting evening calling the game.

[As much as it pains me to write this, it does seem like the elbow might have been intentional, because a close analysis of the video shows that Wemby had eyes on Reid before the elbow lands. So, correct call but also the officials need to address how much other players are able to scratch and grab on Wembanyama without being called for a foul. This goes beyond normal physical defense into a long form mugging attack, and it’s not basketball.]

The Spurs almost overcame Wemby’s absence with some solid performances with their trio of elite guards, as Dylan Harper had a solid night on both ends of the court, Steph Castle had another great night, and De’Aaron Fox stepped up late in the game with timely scoring. Luke Kornet had a good outing as the sole big, protecting the rim while he was in. The Spurs had to go small for long stretches of the game and that’s when Minnesota took advantage of the Spurs lack of rim protection. Carter Bryant couldn’t get going tonight, and he committed a few bad fouls, which limited his minutes. The Spurs tried to control Anthony Edwards by double teaming him every time he touched the ball, but he’s just too good to completely stop, as he took over the game in the fourth quarter with 14 points and brought them back from an 8 point deficit to take the the lead with 3 minutes left. Rudy Gobert made some key plays in the comeback as he took advantage of the Spurs lack of size to grab timely rebounds and put them through the iron circle thing bolted to the backboard, a thing that he’s mostly unfamiliar with.

The Spurs almost pulled off an improbable rally in the last 30 seconds, but Minnesota was able to avoid a turnover as Ayo Dosunmu somehow bounced the ball off his trailing leg and kept it in bounds to keep the Spurs from having a shot to tie it up with 10 seconds left. Despite their valiant effort, the Spurs couldn’t quite eke out a win tonight, and this series is going to at least six games. It resumes on Tuesday at 7:00 PM in San Antonio, which is now a must-win game for the Silver and Black squad.

Observations

• Because this game was broadcast over the air, I watched it on my antenna-connected TV, and also on my streaming network provider on my computer. The stream was consistently about 15 seconds behind the antenna feed, which got really distracting. I get it that for technical reasons that the streaming content is behind the antenna feed, but modern TV broadcasts are already in a digital format. Fifteen seconds seems excessive.
• Oh no, Reggie Miller. Having him announcing a game makes it a lot less fun to watch.
• The Spurs leave Gobert open on the perimeter for a reason.
• The Timberwolves started the game with a lot of energy and physicality, tying it up at 10 in the first 4 minutes. The offensive rebounding of the Wolves is a problem for the Spurs. The possession isn’t over until the defense gets a rebound.
• Terence Shannon is a master of theatrical defense because he relies a lot on flopping to sell charge calls. It’s too bad, because he is actually a good defender, but almost every time he draws a charge, he’s still moving into the path of the driving player.
• When Wemby went to the bench, the Wolves went on a 14-3 run and briefly took a 5 point lead with two minutes left in the first.
• Dylan Harper went on a heater in the last couple of minutes of the first, while the Timberwolves exploited the Spurs zone and uncharacteristically hit three-point shots. The Wolves led 34-30 at the end of the first quarter.
• Early in the second quarter, Wembanyama was called for an insane flagrant penalty two after being manhandled for about 5 seconds by McDaniels and Naz Reid, and tried to spin out of the hold and caught Reid with an elbow. It didn’t look intentional at all, but it looked bad, and I could see a flagrant one, just based on how bad it looked. But a flagrant two and ejection was just insane and unjustified.
• Is kneeing the shooter in the shoulder a foul? Apparently it is, but you need to call for a review for the refs to call it, and even then it wasn’t a shooting foul. When does the gather begin? Nobody knows. Thanks to Julian Champagnie’s two charity shots, the Wolves led 60-56 at the half.
• The Spurs survived Wemby’s absence for most of the second quarter, they trailed by two when he was ejected, and the deficit only grew by two by halftime. One troubling indicator was the five missed free throws by the Silver and Black, if they had made those, they could be ahead at the half even with all of the tough things that happened and odd officiating of the first half.
• I really like Carter Bryant, but he sure gets called for a lot of fouls.
• The Spurs started the third quarter with increased intensity, taking the lead back from the grasping and leaping Wolves. Fox got mauled when Dosunmu dived at his knees to contest a rebound, but somehow that was just a common foul. He had to sit about five minutes, but looked fine after he returned to the game, using the stepback and speed to get a couple of quick baskets for San Antonio.
• Edwards was held under control for most of the third quarter, while the Wolves’ offensive production came from unexpected sources, as two consecutive corner triples from Shannon cut the Spurs lead to a pair of buckets. The Spurs survived a late surge from Minnesota and led 84-80 with a quarter to play.
• Naz Reid went down with an ankle injury early in the fourth, and the Spurs increased their lead to 8 with a Fox triple. You can never feel comfortable against a team that has Anthony Edwards, who can go crazy with scoring at any time, and on cue, a five point barrage from the Ant Man cut the lead to just three points, leading to a quick Mitch Johnson timeout.
• The Wolves retook the lead with Anthony Edwards doing everything, and Rudy Gobert taking advantage of the double team to roam at the hoop and get easy offensive rebounds and a couple of timely putbacks.
• The Spurs were down by 7 with 30 seconds left and cut the deficit to one score with 20 seconds left. The Spurs were close to getting the ball back with 13 seconds, but a lucky bounce of Ayo Dosunmo’s leg allowed the Timberwolves to maintain possession and hold of for a 114-109 win.

Up next

The Spurs will play Minnesota in the Frost Bank Center on Tuesday night, at 7:00 PM because it’s the only game of the night after the Knicks swept the Sixers.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and the New York Knicks are back in the Eastern Conference finals, tying the NBA postseason record with 25 3-pointers in front of a raucous crowd rooting for the road team and rolling past the Philadelphia 76ers 144-114 on Sunday to sweep the second-round series.

Deuce McBride hit seven 3-pointers, going 4 for 4 in the first quarter when the Knicks had another record with 11, and scored 25 points. Brunson had 22 points and Hart and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 17 in the Knicks’ latest lopsided playoff victory.

The Knicks advanced to the East finals for the second straight season and will play the winner of the Cleveland-Detroit series. The Pistons lead the series 2-1.

The Knicks last season reached the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years before losing to Indiana. The Knicks then fired coach Tom Thibodeau, and replaced him with Mike Brown, who has guided them to seven straight playoff wins, starting with the last three games against Atlanta.

TIMBERWOLVES 114, SPURS 109

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards had 16 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to help Minnesota even their second-round NBA playoff series against San Antonio with a victory following the stunning ejection of star Victor Wembanyama early in the second quarter of Game 4.

Naz Reid took the fateful elbow to the neck from a frustrated Wembanyama and finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to help the Timberwolves finish strong after some shaky stretches.

Edwards hit a 27-footer to bring the Wolves within 94-91, turning to shout at the crowd for some help down the stretch as the Spurs quickly called timeout. His catch-and-shoot 3-pointer from the wing with 5:12 left put them up 98-97, their first lead since midway through the third quarter.

Then the big men went to work without Wembanyama patrolling the paint. Rudy Gobert got a three-point play with 3:02 left off a slick feed from Reid and later threw down a dunk for a 107-101 lead with 1:56 to go after a pass from Julius Randle. Gobert had 11 points and 13 rebounds.

Reid’s follow shot with 40 seconds left gave the Wolves a seven-point lead, before Dylan Harper had a rebound, a drawn foul, a steal, and two free throws to help the Spurs pull within three. Ayo Dosunmu sank two foul shots with 9.8 seconds left to put the game out of reach and tie the series at two games apiece.

San Antonio hosts Game 5 on Tuesday, with Wembanyama’s status to be determined by the league following the Flagrant 2 foul call and automatic ejection he was levied for the excessive contact to Reid.

Victor Wembanyama was ejected for the first time in his NBA career after an elbow to the jaw and neck of Naz Reid as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the San Antonio Spurs to level their playoff series.

Wembanyama was whistled for an offensive foul as soon as he struck Reid, who had swarmed the Spurs star outside the paint along with teammate Jaden McDaniels after the 7ft 4in Wembanyama rebounded a missed three-pointer by the Spurs.

After a video review of the play, with the fans at Minnesota’s Target Center chanting, “Kick him out! Kick him out!,” the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 for excessive contact above the neck. The penalty triggered an automatic ejection, and the Timberwolves went on to win 114-109. The best-of-seven series is now level at 2-2. However, despite the ejection the Wolves never fully took advantage of the gift created by his absence. They’ve long had a tendency of losing their edge, particularly defensively, when an opponent’s star player is missing and the score was closer than many of their fans may have expected.

When the penalty was announced, Wembanyama appeared to ask teammate Harrison Barnes: “What does that mean?”

While Spurs coach Mitch Johnson did not condone Wembanyama’s conduct he said referees needed to do more to protect him.

“He’s going to have to protect himself if [the referees] are not … It’s disgusting. I just think that the amount of physicality that people play with him at some level you have to protect yourself,” Johnson said after the game.

After Wembanyama slapped hands with each of his Spurs teammates on his way off the floor, with the arena sound system blaring Michael Jackson’s Beat It!, Reid sank both free throws to give the Timberwolves a 38-34 lead. The reigning NBA defensive player of the year finished with four points, four rebounds and three fouls in 13 minutes.

With Reid, Julius Randle and McDaniels in their frontcourt, the Timberwolves have had plenty of muscle and tenacity to send at Wembanyama, even if he’s been good enough offensively to overcome the pressure. He had 39 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the floor in Game 3. On Sunday, Anthony Edwards led the way for Minnesota, scoring 66 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter. Reid finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to help the Timberwolves finish strong after some shaky stretches.

San Antonio host Game 5 on Tuesday, with Wembanyama’s status to be determined by the NBA on Monday. The league could decide to fine or suspend Wembanyama for his actions.

Johnson said he Wembanyama should be allowed to play. “There was zero intent,” he said. “I think it would be ridiculous [to punish him further].”