Rudy Gobert was ejected in the third quarter of Minnesota’s loss to Phoenix on Monday after the center delivered a forearm shove to the back of an airborne Mark Williams as the Suns big man was going up for a shot attempt.
After review, the officials ruled the foul to be a flagrant-penalty two, which results in an immediate expulsion from the game.
Williams received a flagrant foul, penalty-one earlier in the game for hitting Gobert in the face while swiping down hard to attempt to thwart a Gobert finish at the rim.
Gobert’s push marked his second flagrant foul in two games after he was also cited for a flagrant-penalty one via an overzealous closeout on a James Harden triple Saturday against the Clippers.
Gobert has now been whistled for four flagrant fouls this season — Monday’s penalty-two along with three penalty-one infractions. That puts him at five flagrant foul “points” just one-third of the way through the season.
The next flagrant foul he accrues will result in a suspension. If Gobert’s next two flagrant fouls are penalty-one infractions, he’ll be suspended one game for each. After that, every flagrant foul would result in two-game suspensions between now and the end of the regular season.
It seems highly unlikely the Frenchman will go the rest of the year being assessed another flagrant foul given how physical he is while protecting the paint.
Just last year, Wolves guard Anthony Edwards was suspended for a game in Utah after exceeding the NBA’s technical foul limit for a season. Now Gobert is in high danger of missing games for disciplinary reasons.
Minnesota needs all the wins it can get while trying to position itself amid a crammed top half of the Western Conference race. That means it needs its best defensive player on the floor.
“You can’t make up for Rudy’s absence,” Edwards said after Monday’s loss. “When he’s in the game, they don’t want to go down there and finish. Of course, he’s truly missed when he’s not on the court.”
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