{"id":635863,"date":"2026-05-11T03:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/635863\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T03:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T03:29:09","slug":"what-does-than-mean-wembanyama-confused-after-playoff-ejection-for-elbowing-reid-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/635863\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What does than mean?\u2019: Wembanyama confused after playoff ejection for elbowing Reid | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama was ejected for the first time in his NBA career after an elbow to the jaw and neck of Naz Reid<\/a> as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the San Antonio Spurs to level their playoff series.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was whistled for an offensive foul as soon as he struck Reid, who had swarmed the Spurs star outside the paint along with teammate Jaden McDaniels after the 7ft 4in Wembanyama rebounded a missed three-pointer by the Spurs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

After a video review of the play, with the fans at Minnesota\u2019s Target Center chanting, \u201cKick him out! Kick him out!,\u201d the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 2 for excessive contact above the neck. The penalty triggered an automatic ejection, and the Timberwolves went on to win 114-109. The best-of-seven series is now level at 2-2. However, despite the ejection the Wolves never fully took advantage of the gift created by his absence. They\u2019ve long had a tendency of losing their edge, particularly defensively, when an opponent\u2019s star player is missing and the score was closer than many of their fans may have expected.<\/p>\n

When the penalty was announced, Wembanyama appeared to ask teammate Harrison Barnes: \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

While Spurs coach Mitch Johnson did not condone Wembanyama\u2019s conduct he said referees needed to do more to protect him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to have to protect himself if [the referees] are not \u2026 It\u2019s disgusting. I just think that the amount of physicality that people play with him at some level you have to protect yourself,\u201d Johnson said after the game.<\/p>\n

After Wembanyama slapped hands with each of his Spurs teammates on his way off the floor, with the arena sound system blaring Michael Jackson\u2019s Beat It!, Reid sank both free throws to give the Timberwolves a 38-34 lead. The reigning NBA<\/a> defensive player of the year finished with four points, four rebounds and three fouls in 13 minutes.<\/p>\n

With Reid, Julius Randle and McDaniels in their frontcourt, the Timberwolves have had plenty of muscle and tenacity to send at Wembanyama, even if he\u2019s been good enough offensively to overcome the pressure. He had 39 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the floor in Game 3. On Sunday, Anthony Edwards led the way for Minnesota, scoring 66 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter. Reid finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to help the Timberwolves finish strong after some shaky stretches.<\/p>\n

San Antonio host Game 5 on Tuesday, with Wembanyama\u2019s status to be determined by the NBA on Monday. The league could decide to fine or suspend Wembanyama for his actions.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he Wembanyama should be allowed to play. \u201cThere was zero intent,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it would be ridiculous [to punish him further].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama was ejected for the first time in his NBA career after an elbow to the jaw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-635863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}