A brawl broke out in the first two minutes of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 104-101 In-Season Tournament victory over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, sparking the ejection of three players on an intense night of play.
As the teams advanced up the court, Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Minnesota big Jaden McDaniels got into a brawl first, pulling on each other’s jerseys and slapping each other around.
A number of athletes from both teams hurried to intervene, but Draymond Green of Golden State suddenly intervened and placed T-Wolves center Rudy Gobert in a headlock.
Green, McDaniels, and Thompson—with his torn jersey—were all sent off the field.
Gobert claimed that Green had acted like a “clown” following the competition.
Green has already been dismissed twice this season after being removed from the Warriors’ 118-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday.
According to ESPN, Gobert told reporters, “Every time Steph doesn’t play, he [Green] doesn’t want to play without his guy Steph, so he does anything he can to get ejected.”
“I merely decided not to engage in combat at first. To support my team in this game, I must participate.
“I just waited until the situation was over and demonstrated to the referee that I had my hands up.” Not a bit more than that. The choke wasn’t strong enough to send me to sleep.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, this is the first occasion in 25 years that more than one player has been sent off in a game before a point has been scored by either team.
Following the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr stated that there was “no way” that Thompson should have been sent off.
He told reporters, “That was ridiculous,” according to ESPN. “I was angry over that. Regarding the Draymond portion, Rudy was holding Klay’s throat. That is the reason Draymond pursued Rudy.
With a game-high 33 points and 11 rebounds, Karl-Anthony Towns led the T-Wolves to victory. Anthony Edwards chipped in with 20 points, four rebounds, and four assists.
For the Warriors, who were already without star guard Steph Curry, rookie Brandin Podziemski led the way with an outstanding 23 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.
With a late drive to win, Minnesota defeated Golden State 28–18 in the fourth quarter to give the Timberwolves their seventh straight win—their longest winning streak since 2004.
The Warriors drop to 6-6 and 1-1, while the Wolves increase their record during the regular season to 8-2 and their record in the in-season tournament to 2-0.