Wembanyama’s Elbow Ejection Looms Over Spurs’ Game 4 Loss
The Silver and Black dropped Game 4 of their second round matchup with Minnesota 114-109 Sunday night.
The team will return home to the Frost Bank Center for Game 5 with the series tied at two games apiece.
The Spurs played the majority of the game without this year’s Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama. V-Dub received his first career ejection following an elbow to the neck of Minnesota’s Naz Reid. with 8:39 remaining in the second quarter and resulted in a flagrant foul penalty two and an automatic ejection.
He finished the game with four points on 2‑of‑5 shooting, four rebounds and one assist in 12:29 of play.
The team dodged a bullet Monday ahead of Game 5 as the league determined that he would not face any further punishment as a result of the play.
The Spurs as a team was able to maintain without their stud on the court trailing the home team 56-60 at halftime. They outscored the Wolves 28-20 in the third quarter and led 94-86 with 8:51 left in the game off a De’Aaron Fox three.
There was no answer for Anthony Edwards down the stretch though.
Edwards had 16 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter to lead Minnesota to the victory. He hit a 27-footer to bring the Wolves to within 94-91, and another from the wing with 5:12 left put them up 98-97, their first lead since midway through the third quarter.
Dylon Harper and De’Aaron Fox each scored 24 points for the Spurs while Stephon Castle added 20 in the loss. The trio combined for 68 total points.
It was definitely a missed opportunity to steal a road game and a 3-1 series lead heading back home for the Spurs. V-Dub’s absence was no excuse for the loss.
“We’ve played now 18 games without Vic this year,” De’Aaron Fox said in the locker room. “Seventeen in the regular season and one playoff game. We have some experience.”
We had a chance to win,” Coach Johnson said. “Things we could have been better. We didn’t close it out the way we wanted to, but I thought the reaction, obviously, was phenomenal.”
