San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama is playing in Game 5 of the Spurs' Western Conference semifinal series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, after getting ejected early in Game 4 for throwing an elbow.
The Spurs are obviously relieved about that. And if Wembanyama is angry about missing most of Game 4, then even better, Spurs guard Devin Vassell said Tuesday at shootaround.
“I know he was upset not being able to play that game," Vassell said at a shootaround attended by Spurs President Gregg Popovich, Spurs legend Manu Ginobili and former Spurs assistant Brett Brown, among others. "So, I know that he’s going to be ready to go. That’s what we need. We need that upset Vic who’s ready to attack the game for sure.”
It could be easily argued that Tuesday's game — Game 5, playoff series, tied 2-2, with the winner moving one win from a trip to the Western Conference finals — is the biggest of Wembanyama's NBA career.
Vassell wants to see a fiery Wembanyama — within reason, of course.
“We’ve seen it before. We’ve seen when Vic gets upset," Vassell said. "I mean, we just need him to calm his emotions, make sure that he doesn’t let his emotions take over because at the end of the day like I said, he can’t get any flagrants, he can’t get anything like that. So, Vic knows what he's got to do and he’ll be ready.”
Wembanyama was ejected from the Spurs-Timberwolves game on Sunday night because of the elbow, which he threw early in the second quarter after getting tangled with Minnesota's Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels while grabbing a rebound. Wembanyama swung his arms and his elbow struck Reid in the face.
Officials looked at the play and upgraded the foul to a Flagrant 2, which comes with an automatic ejection. The NBA, as it always does in those situations, further reviewed the play after the game and decided Monday that the ejection was sufficient. It could have fined or even suspended Wembanyama for Game 5 and beyond if it felt that was warranted.
“I don’t think we even thought about it much at all," Timberwolves guard Mike Conley Jr. told reporters at Minnesota's shootaround session Tuesday. "I think once the ruling came down, it was just like, we expected that and just moved forward. It's one of those things. We don’t want guys to miss games. We want to play against the best. We don't want to have guys missing games like that."
Wembanyama's elbow isn't the Spurs' biggest issue right now. The ankles and knees of two of his teammates are potentially problematic, however.
The Spurs added Dylan Harper to their injury list a few hours before Game 5 on Thursday with left knee soreness. He's listed as questionable, as is point guard De'Aaron Fox — who is dealing with what the Spurs described as right ankle soreness.
