Rudy Gobert had a few things to get off his chest following the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 104-101 win over the Warriors on Tuesday night at Chase Center.
Not even two minutes into the game, Gobert was held in a chokehold by Draymond Green after Warriors guard Klay Thompson and Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels got into a scuffle. Both teams rushed to defend their teammates, and when all was said and done, Green, Thompson and McDaniels were ejected.
Gobert remained in the game and later addressed the incident in the locker room, calling Green's chokehold "clown behavior."
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"It’s kind of funny because before the game, I was telling myself that Steph (Curry) is not playing, so I know Draymond is going to try and get ejected," Gobert said after the game (h/t Dane Moore). "Because every time Steph doesn’t play, he doesn’t want to play -- it’s his guy Steph. He’ll do anything he can to get ejected.
"... I’m proud of myself for being the bigger man again and again. And yeah, doesn’t even deserve me putting my hands on him. My team needed me tonight. I did whatever I could to keep my cool and then show that I wasn’t making the situation worse, and I do hope that the league is going to do what needs to be done because that’s just clown behavior. Not much to say. It’s clown behavior."
Curry, who leads the Warriors in scoring with 30.7 points per game, was ruled out for Tuesday's game with a right knee sprain.
Golden State Warriors
Tuesday night marked Green's 18th career ejection in 12 seasons. Per Sportradar, Green has been ejected seven times in 115 career games without Curry on the floor, and 11 times in 652 contests with Curry playing.
Gobert and Green have a long history of trash talk over their careers. They have four Defensive Player of the Year awards between them, and Gobert finished runner-up to Green for the award in 2017.
In 2019, Green mocked Gobert for crying over getting snubbed from All-Star recognition. In 2022, Green brought that moment up again and insisted "we're not alike" while denying a comparison to Gobert on a TNT broadcast.
While the Timberwolves invaded San Francisco and exited with two wins over the Warriors in three days, Green and Golden State will have the March 24 rematch at Target Center in Minnesota circled on their calendars.