NBA

​Timberwolves vs Lakers

After what seemed like forever the time has finally come: playoff basketball. Well, rather  Play-In basketball. This last week or so of basketball has been borderline unwatchable with teams resting starters and some teams even not-so-subtly intentionally losing.

According to ESPN's Tim Bontemps, the NBA is looking into the Mavericks because Dallas 'embarrassed' the league and made a mockery of the play-in tournament pic.twitter.com/zqCURhjdfa

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) April 10, 2023

On the last night of the regular season, we got our annual “Who?” performances of the year. Payton Pritchard (Oregon Legend) put up his first career triple-double

Payton Pritchard first triple-double:

30 PTS
14 REB
11 AST
9-16 3P
45 MIN (!!)

All career highs. pic.twitter.com/wvqoCtcj3t

— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 9, 2023

And Udonis Haslem was out there playing like it was Senior Night ​

OG UDONIS HASLEM □
Playing in his final regular season game
Has 13 POINTS in 9 MINUTES, his 7th career THREE and an ALLEY-OOP DUNK!

13 is the most points he's scored in 8 years! pic.twitter.com/KbqW0zinNz

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) April 9, 2023

 But the craziest thing to happen on Sunday was the punch heard ‘round the league

Oh my Rudy Gobert just threw a punch at his own teammate Kyle Anderson pic.twitter.com/6GP5wwkCqW

— Kevin O'Connor (@KevinOConnorNBA) April 9, 2023

On the bright side this seemed to close the loop that Rudy started about 3 years ago

Bookended by events in which Rudy Gobert lays his hands somewhere he shouldn’t https://t.co/rvhaO6EboJ

— Thomas Cavanagh (@TJ_Cavanagh) April 10, 2023

 Rudy Gobert has been suspended by the Timberwolves and will NOT be playing in the most important game of the Timberwolves’ season so far. We all know that the Gobert trade will go down as an all-time terrible trade but this is just the cherry on top. 

The Timberwolves had to suspend Gobert for throwing a punch, but accepted that it was a shot to chest with no intent to injure Kyle Anderson and understood that Anderson called Gobert a “bitch” repeatedly on a night Gobert was playing hurt, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2023

Even funnier is Jalen Mcdaniels will also not be playing against the Lakers tonight due to *checks notes* throwing a punch!

Jaden McDaniels punched a wall on the way to the locker room ?

He is out the rest of the game with a hand injury pic.twitter.com/QVGMp1hful

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 9, 2023

Mcdaniels fractured his hand and is going to miss significant time, but from the looks of everything he might only miss two games.

The Lakers have been pretty awesome lately and I don't see them struggling too much against the T-wolves unless KAT and Ant have career games. This is just a case of one team trending up and the other trending down. Tonight’s line is currently set at 8.5 points which is a lot of points so I’m pretty torn on how to bet tonight. I honestly just want to bet on Anthony Edwards tonight because of how he performed in last year's play-in. If I had to lean a certain way on the spread I would say Lakers -8.5 but that isn’t what I’m gonna officially put as my pick.
The Pick: Anthony Edwards  O 38.5 Points+Rebounds+Assists

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