Denver Nuggets guard Christian Braun dunked laborious on Rudy Gobert, then celebrated within the face of Rudy Gobert. It led to some laborious emotions in a rematch of a seven-game sequence from final yr’s playoffs.
Within the fourth quarter of the Nuggets sport in opposition to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, Braun discovered a lane to the basket that took him proper by the four-time NBA Defensive Participant of the 12 months. That’s often a recipe for offensive catastrophe, however Braun muscled his means by way of for a thunderous, two-handed dunk that triggered audible gasps from the Goal Middle crowd.
Braun proceeded to rejoice by screaming and strolling previous the baseline, proper into Gobert. The Frenchman took exception, laying arms on the 25-year-old guard and shoving him away.
Fast intervention by Timberwolves ahead Jayden McDaniels and the officers prevented the state of affairs from escalating, however each Braun and Gobert had been assessed technical fouls within the aftermath.
Gobert praised the dunk itself , however not Braun’s celebration:
“He dunked on me. That was incredible, but what happened after the dunk was what I didn’t like. But the dunk was great. It’s part of the game, there’s a lot of adrenaline. I respect him, it was a nice dunk.”
It was a spotlight play for the Nuggets, who took a 10-point lead a minute later. That was the top of the great, although, because the Timberwolves proceeded to erase the 10-point over the course of 4 minutes in what ended up being a 119-116 Minnesota win.
Gobert performed a significant half in placing the Nuggets away, making each of his free throw with 10 seconds left and forcing reigning MVP Nikola Jokić right into a troublesome 3-pointer to finish the sport.
Rudy Gobert hits each free throws and defends Nikola Jokic forcing a troublesome three he misses – Wolves win
Gobert completed the sport with 17 factors on 7-of-10 taking pictures with 14 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, whereas Braun had 14 factors on 5-of-11 taking pictures with seven rebounds. Aaron Gordon led all scorers with 31 factors, whereas Anthony Edwards had 29 factors for the victors.
