Jaden McDaniels slams his hand against a wall during Wolves-Pelicans

The Minnesota Timberwolves started Sunday with a chance to get into the 7-8 play-in game in the West with a win over the New Orleans Pelicans, who had a one-game lead over them, and some help elsewhere .

However, after falling behind early on, things started to unravel for Wolves when Rudy Gobert slammed Kyle Anderson in an altercation on the bench, resulting in Taurean Prince jumping up to shove Gobert and that Star Center was escorted to the dressing room and eventually sent home for the remainder of the game. While everyone was talking about Gobert’s punch at a team-mate, there was another key Timberwolves player whose day ended due to punching issues when Jaden McDaniels slammed into a wall so hard on his way into the tunnel that he sprained his right hand injured and was unable to return to the game.

I feel like the Wolves need to have some conversations with their boys about controlling their emotions because losing two players in a crucial game because they couldn’t stop themselves from killing a teammate/inanimate object seems bad to beat. What’s perhaps even more amazing is that despite the absence of two of their best defensemen, Minnesota still managed to reel in the Pelicans and make it a one-ball game late in the third quarter thanks to some heroics from Anthony Edwards and her hopes of the Improving their seeding stayed alive, even with the best efforts by Gobert and McDaniels to derail things.