The NBA Game you Missed When you Were Watching College Football
My oh my, was that College Football Championship a game for the ages. Headed into the game if I told you a team would have not one, but two missed field goals, switch out their starting quarterback for a freshman, and have a inter-squad fight on the sideline but still manage to win you wouldn’t believe it. Then again if I told you that same team was Alabama you’d say, “Of course they did.” The National Championship lived up to all the hype and deciding to spend 3+ hours watching the game was a fantastic decision. But with all decisions there are opportunity costs associated. For instance your opportunity cost of watching Alabama vs Georgia was not watching the rest of the sports that took place during the same time. But have no fear, we’ve done our homework to get you back up to speed the absolute doozy of an NBA game that you missed.
Before the Incident
The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Minnesota, currently sitting at 4th place in the Western Conference, to play the Wolves who have continued to be a mixed bag this season. Cleveland was hoping they would get the Wolves that lost to the Brooklyn Nets, but instead they got the ones who beat the Spurs. The Wolves lead by 27 at the half but the third quarter is where things really started to get crazy.
The Incident
In the middle of the third quarter Minnesota’s forward Andrew Wiggins’s drive to the basketball came to an abrupt stop when Cavs Point Guard Isaiah Thomas swung his arm and closelined him.
Couple things to point out after reviewing the tape. Firstly, Isaiah had absolutely no business even attempting to stop Wiggins, let alone actually stopping him. You can tell he realizes this the moment that Isaiah goes from swinging horizontally to swinging up to the heavens and clipping Wiggins along the way. Secondly, Thomas may have delivered pound for pound the biggest hit in NBA history. Wiggins has almost a foot of height and 25+ pounds on Isaiah but the Cavs offseason acquisition still managed to easily dispatch Minnesota’s 22 year old rising star.
After the Incident
Immediately after the collision Minnesota’s medical team rushed onto the scene to assist their player. Thankfully Wiggins was alright and just a little shaken up, but that didn’t stop his teammate and (apparently) resident medical expert Jimmy Butler from assisting on the scene as well.
Yes you saw that right — Jimmy Butler decided to take the pulse of his (very much alive) teammate then tell the medical staff his findings. Isaiah Thomas received a flagrant two for the foul and was ejected from the contest which didn’t help Cleveland who eventually lost by 28 points.
