The Minnesota Timberwolves, led by a somewhat hobbled Anthony Edwards, pulled off a miraculous win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of their Western Conference Semifinals series on Monday night.
The Wolves emerged with a hard-fought 104-102 victory on the road despite an historic performance from Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama, who tallied a 12-block triple-double in the game.
Guard Terrance Shannon Jr. stepped up big time for the Wolves, scoring 16 points in the contest, and made it clear after the game that he will not be deterred.
“He gonna have to block it every time, I ain’t gonna stop going downhill and I told him that when he said a little something after he blocked my second one,” Shannon said. “He gonna have to block it every time, man. I know he ain’t gonna block it every single time. I’m gonna dunk on him.”
However, fans on social media are calling out the game’s referees for crediting Wemby with blocks on what appear to be obvious goaltends.
Fans were critical of the officiating on social media.
“The NBA’s urgency to make Wembanyama something he’s years away from becoming needs to be studied,” one fan wrote on X.
“I hope they take a look at this and call game 2 better. Don’t mind the fouls, it’s the goal tends which are kinda unforgivable,” someone else added.
“NBA gotta watch this closer going forward. If the wolves would’ve lost this there would be chaos lol,” another fan added.
For Wemby’s part, he may be focusing more on the offensive end for the remainder of the series anyway.
“I feel like I had to use my energy,” he said, via ESPN. “Obviously, I used a lot of it on one side of the court. On the other side, offensively, I used too much energy on things that didn’t really help our team. So, that’s on me. There was some good and some bad. It’s a lot on me because my game wasn’t feeling good tonight [to] where the team is going to look for me. If I had been better, if the offensive leaders on our team would have been better, it would have been different. So, basically, if everything was different, it would have been different.”
Game 2 will be on Wednesday night on EPSN.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.