Austin Rivers News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/austin-rivers/ Minnesota sports, but different Sat, 04 Feb 2023 14:46:23 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=32,height=32,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cropped-cropped-MSF-favicon-1.jpg Austin Rivers News - MinnesotaSportsFan https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/tag/austin-rivers/ 32 32 Five Ejected After Bench Clearing Brawl Between Wolves and Magic https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-timberwolves/timberwolves-magic-fight-brawl/ Sat, 04 Feb 2023 03:32:24 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=41653 Benches cleared and five players were ejected from Friday night’s Minnesota Timberwolves vs Orlando Magic game at Target Center. Those who got tossed included Austin Rivers, Taurean Prince and Jaden McDaniels for the Wolves, Mo Bamba and Jalen Suggs for the Magic.

The sudden altercation surprised the Bally Sports broadcast and everyone watching. Austin Rivers and Mo Bamba started jawing near the Orlando bench. Whatever Rivers said was enough to make Bamba jump up (with his warmups on) and throw fists. Nobody took any real shots but it was still one of the best melees in Target Center history.

It all started when Markelle Fultz and Mo Bamba made fun of Rivers after he badly missed a 3PT shot the possession before. After the game, Rivers would tell media that Fultz and Bamba were “saying wild things” for multiple possessions before the fight broke out.

Fight spills over after the game

Rivers tried to hold back, when asked about the altercation postgame, and what led to the kerfuffle. It didn’t take much probing from reporters for him to open up a vein, though. The 10-year NBA veteran chalked it all up to two men in the heat of the moment who lost their cools.

Rivers did, however, take issue with the way former Minnehaha Academy phenom, Jalen Suggs, blindsided him into a flying headlock while he was toe-to-toe with Bamba. Admittedly, that was a cheap shot and not something you should do when two grown men are squaring off.

When Bamba and Rivers physically separated, the scuffle took to social media. Mo Bamba posted the recently popular “fuck around and find out” meme. Austin Rivers replied with a post of his own reminding Bamba that he was willing to go 1v5 when first confronting the Magic bench.

Chris Finch backs Austin Rivers

Timberwolves head coach, Chris Finch, backed Austin Rivers fully, saying that it’s completely unacceptable for a player who is not in the game to jump off the bench and start throwing punches like Mo Bamba did.

We’ll see what the NBA thinks when suspensions and fines are being handed out this week. Here are both Austin Rivers and Chris Finch’s postgame press conferences, in their totality.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

]]> Sat, 04 Feb 2023 08:46:23 +0000 Minnesota Timberwolves Bjelica Dodges Afflalo Haymaker Tuesday as Players Across NBA are Losing Grip https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-timberwolves/bjelica-dodges-afflalo-haymaker/ https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/minnesota-timberwolves/bjelica-dodges-afflalo-haymaker/#respond Wed, 17 Jan 2018 04:25:33 +0000 https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/?p=7081

Directions: Press Play on the Below Video:

Let em go, refs! I know the game was in Orlando, but the Wolves are from the State of Hockey. They’re ready.

That mindset might not be politically correct, but at this moment, I don’t even care. The “Minneapolis Miracle” has me feeling like Nemenjia Bjelcia when Aaron Afflalo swung on him. Untouchable.

After a skirmish in the second quarter that resulted in Bjelly and Afflalo receiving technicals, things only escalated a few minutes later.

Both players were immediately ejected for the footage you saw above. I’m unsure about our Serbian sniper, but the Magic guard most certainly will be suspended for his George Foreman inspired haymaker. You could make the argument that Bjelicia shouldn’t have thrown that hammer-punch right at the end, but still. That looked like self-defense.

Some seem to think the Wolves’ forward got lucky because Afflalo is from Compton. Who’s to say that’s a harder place to grow up than Serbia? Certainly not my geographically uneducated ass.

With the league’s players currently going through the dog days of their respective season, tensions are at an all time high. The Bjelicia/Afflalo confrontation came one day after one of the more weird NBA events to happen in recent memory.

Well, that was pretty weird, but it’s not what I’m referring to.

After being traded to the Rockets over the summer, Chris Paul made his return to Los Angeles on Monday. It’s no secret that he and his former teammate, Blake Griffin, have animosity towards one another. CP3’s first game back at Staples Center to play the Clippers was heated.

After Griffin got ejected and the contest ceased, the two teams had an after party. Paul and a couple of his Rocket teammates tried to gain entry to the Clippers locker room. Apparently, that was through some back door that the PG, who’s also the President of the Players Union, knew about.

Outside of the fact CP3 and company were in pursuit of Blake Griffin AND Austin Rivers, the exact details of how it all played out aren’t entirely clear. However, one that thing is clear, the cops were called. Actually. The police showed up.

The last few days have been such a damn blur. Per my conscience’s recommendation, I’ve been trying to document as much of it as possible…

Best Things I Saw on January 16, 2018:

  1. More Skol Nation reaction videos.
  2. Sean Payton memes/gifs/etc.
  3. Bjelly dodge the Afflalo punch
  4. The replay of Shaq and Charles Barkley when they found out about the Chris Paul scenario:

Johnny Minnesota @TheJohnnyMN
Minnesota Sports Fan MinnesotaSportsFan.com

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