Rudy Gobert sent home at half by Timberwolves after he punched teammate Kyle Anderson

The Minnesota Timberwolves are headed to Los Angeles as the No. 8 seed to take on the Lakers in the play-in tournament, but star center Rudy Gobert may not be with them.

Gobert proved to be the dark cloud over what should have been a celebratory night in Minnesota. During a second-quarter timeout, Gobert started arguing with teammate Kyle Anderson while coach Chris Finch sat between them and tried to address the team. Then Gobert reached over Finch and punched Anderson in the chest (not with much force, but still a punch).

Taurean Prince was first to push Gobert back and separate the two, then other coaches and players stepped in. Gobert was walked back to the locker room and sent home. It’s not yet clear what the two were arguing about.

“Obviously it was very frustrating, you know, a couple blown assignments,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of what caused the fight. “A lot on the line tonight. We’re not proud of that behavior by anybody. We really haven’t dug too far into like the root cause of it. But guys are just frustrated. We weren’t playing well. We weren’t sharing the ball. We weren’t you know, we’re getting beat and all the little areas. I mean, we look sluggish, like you will want to back to back but I think the gravity of the game made it feel like you know, we were in a little bit of panic mode…

“It’s certainly not something that we condone. I mean, veterans can get upset too. So I don’t want to be too hard on him. But obviously, it’s not something we’re going to be able to tolerate here.”

The Timberwolves have not decided what the punishment for Gobert will be or if he will miss Tuesday’s play-in game against the Lakers.

Anderson is a veteran, vocal leader on the Timberwolves, but his blunt style can sometimes rub guys the wrong way. Gobert talked about that to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune before the game.

Towns scored 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting and Anthony Edwards added 26 to get the Timberwolves a critical win Sunday. With it, they enter the play-in needing to win one of two games to make the playoffs (either Tuesday against the Lakers in Los Angeles, or if they lose that the Timberwolves face the winner of the Pelicans Thunder matchup for a win-or-go-home second chance game (the winner would be the eighth seed and face the Timberwolves).

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Rudy Gobert sent home at half by Timberwolves after he punched teammate Kyle Anderson originally appeared on NBCSports.com