The Minnesota Timberwolves Had A Really, Really Rough Wednesday

When it rains, it pours. On Wednesday, the Minnesota Timberwolves found themselves in the midst of a deluge.

Yet, when the downpour stopped, Donte DiVincenzo was flexing his muscles and Julius Randle was haughtily pointing at referee Scott Foster. Even after everything they’d gone through that night, the Wolves had won.

Randle appeared to have chosen an unusual way of celebrating a victory, but he can hardly be blamed for feeling defiant. To begin with, the Wolves came into this game against the Houston Rockets without Anthony Edwards and Ayo Dosunmu, who were both out due to injury. On top of this, Randle had a bone to pick with Foster. Multiple bones, in fact.

With less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter, the senior official had whistled Randle for a flagrant foul. In that sequence, the three-time All-Star was chasing Jabari Smith Jr. and he happened to knock down Alperen Sengun, who was setting a screen. Apparently, Foster thought that Randle’s physicality warranted more than a regular foul.

“They tell him he had a clear opportunity to avoid the screen,” Wolves head coach Chris Finch said of Randle after the game. “Said he sought him [Sengun] out to run him over…clearly a foul, but flagrant? I don’t know.”

The flagrant foul put Randle on the brink of exiting the game, but he managed to steer clear of major calls for the rest of the way. The same could not be said of Rudy Gobert, who got whistled for his sixth personal foul with nine seconds left in regulation. At that point, the Wolves had been clinging to a 95-94 lead and Kevin Durant was awarded a free throw for Gobert’s away-from-play foul. Durant swished the bonus shot to send the game into overtime.

Earlier in the fourth quarter, the Wolves had already lost Jaden McDaniels, who headed back to the locker room with serious cramping. Then, in the extra period, Minnesota found themselves with another man down as Naz Reid was ejected for incessant complaining. The official who threw Reid off the court? None other than Foster.

So, when Randle (24 points, six rebounds, six assists) pointed a finger at Foster following the Wolves’ 110-108 victory, it wasn’t because of outright cockiness. Randle had gone through a storm, lost some teammates along the way, and still emerged with the W when the clouds dispersed.