The Minnesota Timberwolves will be without their defensive anchor on Tuesday as they face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA’s play-in game, with the winner securing the seventh seed in the Western Conference.
Rudy Gobert, the three-time Defensive Player of the Year, was suspended one game by the organization on Monday after punching teammate Kyle Anderson in the chest during Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Minnesota’s president of basketball operations, Tim Connelly, explained the decision to suspend Gobert, saying the organization wants to hold itself to “elite standards.”
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“We have standards we have to uphold, and we saw what happened, and it was embarrassing,” Connelly said Tuesday, according to the Star Tribune. “It’s not who we are as an organization, who Rudy is as a professional. Those guys quickly made amends, but we’re trying to be an elite organization and trying to hold ourselves to elite standards.”
Anderson echoed Connelly’s statement regarding the two making amends, saying the teammates have put the incident behind them.
“We definitely hashed it out,” Anderson said per the Star Tribune. “That happens all the time in sports. I feel like people are acting like they’ve never seen it before. We’re grown men. We’re able to put it behind us. We both want to win. We spoke about it that night, and just seeing how everything is playing out is kind of lame, honestly.”
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“We’re teammates at the end of the day. I don’t want it to be a Kyle-vs.-Rudy thing. That’s never the case. I always got my teammates’ back, and we moved on.”
Gobert was sent home from Sunday’s game, and the center made a public apology.
“Emotions got the best of me today,” Gobert posted to Twitter. “I should not have reacted the way i did regardless of what was said. I wanna apologize to the fans, the organisation (sic) and particularly to Kyle, who is someone that i truly love and respect as a teammate.”
Minnesota will also be without forward Jaden McDaniels against the Lakers, who suffered a fractured shooting hand after punching a wall on the way to the locker room on Sunday.
Gobert will be able to return for Minnesota’s next game, whether it’s in the playoffs against the Memphis Grizzlies or in a win-or-go-home game against the winner of the No. 9-No. 10 matchup in the play-in game.
