The Timberwolves beat the Spurs 114-109 in Game 4 on Sunday to even the series at 2-2, and the turning point came before the second quarter was old. Victor Wembanyama was disqualified after slamming his right elbow into Naz Reid’s neck, ending a night that lasted 12:29 and left nearly 33 minutes of game time on the table.
San Antonio was up 36-34 when Wembanyama was ejected, but the Spurs were outscored 80-73 the rest of the way. That makes Tuesday’s Game 5, scheduled for 8 ET on NBC and Peacock, a pressure game for a team with little wiggle room after losing the player around whom almost everything on defense is built.
The number that will follow Wembanyama around this series is not just the score. It is the brevity of the outing. The Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year was on the floor for 12:29, a figure that sits beside some of the shortest healthy postseason appearances by stars in league history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once played 10 minutes in a playoff game referenced in the story, Bill Russell played 20 minutes in the 1958 NBA Finals series finale against St. Louis, and LeBron James logged 24 minutes in Game 5 of the 2014 East Finals.
There are other entry points into that company list. Michael Jordan played 29 minutes in the Bulls’ 1993 playoff opener against Atlanta. Wilt Chamberlain played 34 minutes in Game 4 of the 1971 West Finals. Shaquille O’Neal had consecutive playoff appearances of 8:29 and 3:31 in 2011. David Robinson played 7:11 in the Spurs’ 2002 first-round opener against Seattle, and Tim Duncan played 12:06 in Game 4 of the West semifinals against Oklahoma City.
That context does not change what happened in Minneapolis on Sunday. It does show how unusual it is for a player of Wembanyama’s stature to disappear so quickly in a playoff game and leave his team to absorb the loss of nearly an entire night’s worth of minutes. For the Spurs, who now head into Game 5 tied and short on margin, the next game is less about changing the series than surviving it.
