Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Thursday 01 May 2025 at 9:24 am
Author of an exceptional match against the Lakers this Wednesday, Rudy Gobert received congratulations from his team, but preferred to highlight the Minnesota Timberwolves collective.
He had been at the center of criticism during the first four games of the series against the Lakers, but Wednesday, in match 5 on Wednesday which allowed the Minnesota Timberwolves to eliminate in the first round of the play -offs the Californians of the duo of superstars Lebron James – Luka Donic, Rudy Gobert has silenced a lot of people! The 32-year-old French pivot scored 27 points and took 24 rebounds in the 96-103 victory on his team on the Lakers prosecution. Figures he had never reached in 74 play-off games during his career. He even became the fourth player in history to finish with at least 25 points and 20 rebounds in a play-off match with more than 80% shots success, the first since 1996! After the match, the former Utah pivot was necessarily proud of his performance, but wanted to highlight the collective force of the Wolves. “It feels good! The balloons came to me, my teammates found me in attack. The important thing remains the victory, said Gobert in a press conference, in comments relayed by The team. Earlier in the series, we won matches when I put 2, 6 points … but I found that we played collectively. Sometimes the ball does not come in your hands and the shoots are for another guy. I just want to play to win. It is the strength of our team, anyone can stand out. (…) I felt during this series that it was harder and harder for the Lakers to contain me in the rebound. They put a lot of energy there but it is hard for them to limit me in this area. On the last games, I had good positions but the ball bounced off the opposite. I knew there would be a match that would be more favorable to me and that I would have to be up to it. “
Finch: “Rudy is the engine of victory”
If his whimsical teammate Anthony Edwards described his performance as “phenomenal”, “worthy of the Dragon of Game of Thrones”, his coach Chris Finch did not dry up either about the former quadruple defender of the year. “Rudy is a winner at the highest level. It is the engine of victory. You cannot not like who it is, how it does it, what it looks like, etc. When you have this guy in your team, you understand what a professional and a winner is. And it is also a big competitor “. After this performance which marked the spirits in front of one of the most prestigious franchises, we will have to confirm for Rudy Gobert, from the next round against Golden State or Houston, to compete in a second conference final in a row.
