During the Timberwolves’ 104-101 win over the Warriors in an NBA In-Season Tournament game in San Francisco, the teams got into a heated scuffle that included Draymond Green getting ejected, along with two others, after he put Rudy Gobert into a headlock.
The fracas started just 1 minute and 43 seconds into the game after the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards missed a 3-point jumper and the Warriors rebounded the ball and took the ball the other way.
That’s when Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into it at half-court after Thompson tried to push through McDaniels, who appeared to be impeding his progress up the floor.
McDaniels then grabbed Thompson’s jersey and tried to throw him to the side.
That’s when players from both teams joined the fray, and Green came into the pile, took Gobert by the neck, and dragged him to an area close to the Warriors’ bench.
“Not much to say,” Gobert said after the Timberwolves’ win. “That’s just clown behavior.”
Before long, Green was peeled off Gobert with the help of Karl-Anthony Towns and Edwards as things finally started to cool down, with Warriors head coach Steve Kerr appearing to tell Green to “let go.”
When things were all settled, Green, Thompson whose jersey got torn up and McDaniels were all ejected from the game, with Green getting issued a flagrant 2 on the spot.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said McDaniels instigated the altercation and Thompson should not have been ejected.
“He’s running up the floor, and the guy grabs his jersey, and he’s pulling on him. So Klay pulls back,” Kerr said. “No way that Klay should have been ejected. That was ridiculous.”
McDaniels said he was “just trying to defend myself” when Thompson grabbed at his collar.
There was some early aggression between the teams, but McDaniels did not anticipate the tension would boil over.
“There was some chitter-chatter going back and forth, but I wasn’t taking it seriously,” McDaniels said. “I was laughing. And then I guess it was just a bigger deal to him.”
Thompson and Green were not available for comment after the game.
After the fracas began, Gobert said he got involved to “de-escalate the situation.” When Green grabbed him, Gobert threw up his hands to avoid making matters worse.
“My first thought was just, ‘I’m not going to fight. I need to be in this game to help my team,’” Gobert said. “I just showed the ref that I had my hands up, and I just waited until the situation was over. Nothing more than that. It wasn’t a good enough choke to put me to sleep.”
Crew chief Tyler Ford told a pool reporter that Gobert was considered a “peacemaker” and thus was not ejected for his involvement.
According to OptaSTATS, it was the first time three starters were ejected from a game before either team scored a point.
Gobert ended up hitting both flagrant free throws, which were the first two points of the game after everything was sorted out in a truly chaotic scene at Chase Center.
“I thought the ejections were the right ones,
