Facing a halftime deficit against the red-hot Los Angeles Clippers, Rudy Gobert felt compelled to call his team to action, where he allegedly cussed out his teammates in a passionate locker-room rant. “In English,” Edwards confirmed. We don’t know French.” Whatever Rudy said during halftime sparked the Wolves to life, and came into the final two quarters with a different kind of spark.
After the final buzzer, the Timberwolves made it personal by relishing in the victory and singing talks about the “old” guys on the Clips. “Them [expletives] sorry,” one player could be heard loudly saying, via Justin Russo. “Them [expletives] old as hell.”
The Clippers are being led by Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and James Harden, who are all near the tail end of their prime. Over the past few weeks, the team has been on fire with their “big three,” but there is still a lack of trust in their potential come the postseason. In Minnesota, the Timberwolves don’t fear the Clippers or any team at the moment and they have ambitions to take the Western Conference for their own. Thanks to Anthony Edwards, they have a real shot to make their dreams a reality, but Rudy Gobert is ultimately the x-factor for their success. His resurgence this season has elevated the Timberwolves to another level of dominance and they’ve become a team that no contender wants to face in the playoffs. Whether or not the Wolves are contenders of their own just yet remains to be seen, but Gobert has a chance to prove all the haters wrong if they can make a run past the first few rounds.
Rudy Gobert Has A Lot To Prove With The Minnesota Timberwolves
Gobert, a 3x Defensive Player of the Year, is a generationally great defender and a sure-fire future Hall of Famer. Even so, his career has been far from smooth sailing. Throughout his tenure with the Jazz, he was consistently blamed for their problems when they flamed out in the playoffs year after year. Then there was the infamous Utah COVID-19 scandal, when he needlessly exposed the media and all of his teammates to the virus. On the court, as great as he was on defense and under the rim, it was never enough to make a serious title pursuit and Rudy was finally traded to Minnesota in a trade that some dubbed “the worst deal in NBA history.” During Rudy’s first season with the Wolves, they failed to get any traction and his career appeared to be headed on a downward trajectory.
This season, however, has been arguably the best stretch of Gobert’s career. With averages of 13.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks per game on 64% shooting, he’s been dominant for Minnesota — mostly on defense, where he’s once again on par to win Defense Player of the Year. Better yet, Gobert’s play has raised the Timberwolves to a top seed in the West, proving that he can still make an impact on winning. This season, as the defensive anchor and a vocal leader for the Timberwolves, Gobert is proving all the haters wrong and validating the mega-trade that brought him here in the first place. But until the Wolves can make the Finals and overcome their lack of experience, there will always be some level of doubt in their chances of winning the West.
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