In wake of the crazy 116-108 win by the Utah Jazz over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, many people are still talking about Timberwolves point guard Jeff Teague's body-check of Jazz point guard Ricky Rubio during the fourth quarter.
Rubio, who spent his first six seasons in the NBA with the Wolves after being selected No. 5 overall in the 2009 NBA Draft, was essentially replaced with Teague as Minnesota's starting point guard this season.
According to a tweet by senior NBA writer Chris Herring of ESPN, he theorized part of the reason why Teague took out his frustration on Rubio might be connected to something the journalist witnessed during the Wolves' media day before the season started.
“Was saying this to someone earlier, but Teague had seemingly been tired of Rubio and his shadow for a while,” Herring said. “I remember covering Minnesota's media day and him saying that random people in Minneapolis telling him how beloved Rubio was and how he had big shoes to fill shortly after he was signed,” Herring said. “Who knows whether that factors into something like what we saw last night. Could've just been frustration w the play before. Interesting, though.”
It's definitely an interesting thought and might be true, but this was most likely due to the frustration that has piled up recently for Teague and the Wolves. Aside from star center Karl-Anthony Towns being ejected earlier in the second quarter of the game for picking up a second technical foul, Minnesota has been without the services of their star shooting guard Jimmy Butler.
The All-Star guard, who suffered a right knee injury last week against the Houston Rockets, has missed the Wolves' last four games. Butler is out indefinitely after having successful meniscus surgery and the team hopes to have him back in time for the playoffs.
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