The San Antonio Spurs fell to a 114-109 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night, as Minnesota tied up their second-round series at 2-2. This game was impacted significantly after Victor Wembanyama was ejected in the second quarter of the clash for elbowing Timberwolves big man Naz Reid in the throat during an aggressive moment on the court.
Wembanyama’s flagrant two led to his ejection, with the Spurs trying to secure the win and a 3-1 series lead without their French superstar. A 36-point night from Anthony Edwards was enough to help the Wolves stay ahead of San Antonio and secure a series-tying home win in Game 4.
Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson opened up about Wembanyama’s ejection in his post-game press conference, lauding his 21-year-old franchise cornerstone for protecting himself in the face of physical play when the referees haven’t been doing it.
“I’m glad he took matters into his own hands. Not in the sense that I wanted him to elbow Naz Reid, I want to be clear about that. But he’s going to have to protect himself if no one else does it for him (…) The 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. And to a certain extent, it’s starting to become downright nauseating.”
Coach Johnson expanded on his belief that opponents are becoming too physical with Wembanyama and that the 7’4″ center was actively not being protected by the referees, so he’s having to protect himself.
“I think the amount of physicality people play with against him, at some level, you have to protect yourself. Every single play on every single part of the floor, people are trying to impose their physicality on him. I get it, we get it, it’s part of the game. He’s gotten chucked, pushed down in transition when running freely, all that stuff. He doesn’t complain, we don’t complain, we don’t really give a s—. At some stage, he needs to be protected, or he’ll have to protect himself. Unfortunately, stuff like that happens.”
“There was zero intent; they did what they did because of the outcome of the play. So be it. To add anything on top of that would be ridiculous.”
Wembanyama left the game with four points and four rebounds in 12 minutes of action, so the Wolves had found a way to limit Wembanyama’s production in this game. Edwards even admitted that the Wolves felt the game got a little harder without the Spurs’ French phenom on the court, but that was because the rest of the rotation was working extra hard to cover up the defensive gaps left after Wemby’s ejection.
Victor Wembanyama is averaging 19.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 4.4 blocks through the 2026 NBA Playoffs, emerging as potentially a top-five player in the NBA during his third season. A second-round loss to the shorthanded Timberwolves would be embarrassing for the rising Spurs, so San Antonio must protect home-court in Game 5 on Tuesday.
Coach Johnson doesn’t anticipate additional punishment for Wembanyama, so the center should be back in the Spurs lineup for Game 5. Hopefully, he can find ways to protect himself from Minnesota’s physicality that doesn’t lead to him getting ejected once again.
