MINNEAPOLIS — The elbow caught Naz Reid flush in the throat, the impact so violent that it buckled his knees and dropped him, face down, onto the court.
It was delivered by the 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama, whose torso uncorked in a fit of frustration that sent his right elbow whipping toward Reid’s windpipe like a torpedo bat flying through the strike zone. For a moment, Reid almost seemed to pause on his way down, as if the transfer of energy from Wembanyama’s elbow to his neck caused his body to glitch in real time.
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Reid’s upper lip curled and his face contorted as he hit the deck, feeling like a felled fighter during one of his favorite MMA main events.
Get up.
The feeling overwhelmed him even as his jaw ached and his throat compressed in the second quarter of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ 114-109 victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Sunday. He had just taken a hellacious shot from the longest arms in the league. The one thing going through his head, other than Wembanyama’s elbow, was that he wasn’t going to let the Spurs star get the best of him.
Get up.
A mere four seconds after he was knocked to the ground, Reid pressed both of his palms on the hardwood and pushed himself to his feet. He got up because his mother, Anashia, always got up every morning to walk to work in New Jersey so she could provide for Reid and his siblings.
“My mom used to walk damn near an hour and 45 minutes to work,” Reid said as he walked to his car late on Sunday night. “That’s what my mom taught me. You get knocked down, get right back up.”
He got up because his grandmother, Linda, always got up to take care of a young Naz when his mother was teaching preschool or stuck at any number of odd jobs she needed to make sure the lights stayed on and the refrigerator was full.
“My mom and my grandmother have been through a lot,” Reid said. “That’s where I get my pain tolerance from.”
He got up because he knows they’re watching and because this year has been harder than most for the Reid family. His big sister, Toraya, was killed in a domestic violence incident before training camp last fall, devastating the close-knit group. Amid all of the suffering, they all still look to Reid and his Timberwolves to put smiles on their faces.
“A lot of hurt throughout my family,” Reid told The Athletic. “A lot of family members have passed away. We’ve had to stick up for one another. I’m trying to be me and alleviate some of that pain.”
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He got up because his extended family in the locker room needs him almost as much as his immediate family does. At the moment of impact, the Wolves were down 2-1 in the series. Falling behind 3-1 would have all but ended their season, and this team is not ready to be done yet. Reid is the longest-tenured Wolf on the roster, an undrafted rookie free agent in 2019 who climbed from LSU up through the G League and into the Timberwolves’ core along with Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels. He knows his teammates are inspired by his journey and feed off his energy.
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The fans are as well. They’ve seen him grow up from a pudgy, undersized center as a rookie into a sleek, versatile Sixth Man of the Year with a five-year, $125 million contract that cements him as part of their favorite team’s long-term future. The Wolves won 42 games combined in Reid’s first two seasons. They have evolved into a team that has made the playoffs for five straight years, including three straight trips to the second round.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Reid said. “Ant, Jaden, me, Julius (Randle). We’ve got each other’s back. We’re genuinely friends first before basketball. That helps us fight for one another.”
When he takes the elbow and gets back up, when he goes down with a sprained ankle later in the game and comes back in, his teammates notice. Edwards is playing on two bad knees. Ayo Dosunmu is playing with a balky calf. McDaniels seems to have an ice pack on a different body part each game. Reid has been playing with a banged-up shoulder for most of the second half of the season. But he keeps coming back for more.
“It’s incredible. He’s a warrior,” Randle said. “Every time he’s out there, he’s going to battle. For him to do that, and continue to make plays throughout the game, it’s big for us. We needed every single one of them.”
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Wembanyama was given a Flagrant-2 and ejected for that elbow on Reid, limiting him to 12 minutes and four points in the game. When he left, hope swelled inside Target Center. The alien, the one who took Game 3 nearly all by himself, exited with almost 33 minutes left in the game. Surely that meant that the Timberwolves would cruise to victory and head back to San Antonio for Tuesday’s Game 5 with the series tied, 2-2.
Reid gathered himself by leaning against the basket stanchion, flexing his jaw and taking in some deep breaths. He knocked down the two free throws, but the young Spurs responded with force while standing up for their departed leader.
Rookie Dylan Harper scored 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting, De’Aaron Fox had 24 points and three steals, and Stephon Castle had 20 points and six rebounds, helping San Antonio build a 94-86 lead early in the fourth quarter, putting it nine minutes away from delivering a blow to the Timberwolves much more lethal than Wemby’s elbow.
Get up.
Inspired by Reid pulling himself off the mat, the Wolves mounted one last charge. Edwards put on the superhero cape, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter. Rudy Gobert grabbed five rebounds and had a clutch 3-point play, and Randle played terrific defense in a 34-25 frame for Minnesota.
Reid played a big role in the season-saving quarter as well, scoring six points, grabbing three boards and picking up two assists, including a no-look dish to Gobert for a dunk with three minutes to play. He finished the game with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists and only one turnover in 30 minutes.
“He’s just been playing hard for us this entire time, man,” said Edwards, who finished with 36 points and six rebounds. “He dive on the floor, do all the little things that other people don’t want to do. So he know, I love him. That’s my brother.”
Naz Reid.
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“It shows how deep we can dig and the toughness that we have,” Reid said. “We have a lot more basketball to play. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been together, been to two Western Conference finals. That’s the experience they talk about.”
That it took everything the Wolves had to squeak by the Spurs without Wembanyama for the final two-and-a-half quarters is cause for concern in Minnesota. This is now a best-of-three series with two of those games scheduled in San Antonio. The Spurs are young, hungry and are showing no signs of inexperience being an obstacle in their pursuit of a title. Edwards’ knees have taken some of his explosiveness away, Randle is turning the ball over at an alarming rate and Dosunmu has not looked comfortable since coming back from that calf injury in Game 2.
But the series is 2-2. Another game at Target Center is guaranteed. The Wolves are still in the fight.
Reid grew wistful late Sunday night as the drive home awaited. He was thinking of the fight they won in Game 4 and the fights still to come. He was thinking about how far he’s come and what it took to get here.
“If only y’all knew who my mom and my grandmother are,” he said on Mother’s Day. “I get a lot of my toughness from them.”
The Wolves expect a motivated Wemby back on the court in Game 5, and the rowdy Spurs crowd will be out for blood. There will be more punches to absorb in what has been the defining series of the second round.
They just have to follow Anashia, Linda and Naz’s lead. They just have to keep getting up.