NBA clears Victor Wembanyama for Game 5 after flagrant 2 ejection

Victor Wembanyama will be on the floor for Game 5, and the NBA’s decision to stop at a flagrant 2 ejection has kept the postseason dispute from turning into a suspension. The league cleared the San Antonio Spurs center of any additional punishment after his elbow to Minnesota’s Naz Reid in Game 4, preserving his eligibility for the next meeting in San Antonio.

The play was upgraded on video review to a Flagrant Foul Penalty 2, the league’s designation for unnecessary and excessive contact. Under NBA rules, that ruling brings an automatic ejection, but not an automatic suspension. Both flagrant 1 and flagrant 2 fouls also carry two free throws and possession for the fouled team, a detail that shaped the immediate penalty even as the league declined to add more.

Game 4, played Sunday at Target Center in Minneapolis, swung back to Minnesota when Anthony Edwards scored 36 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter, in the Timberwolves’ 114-109 win. The result evened the Western Conference semifinal at 2-2 and turned Wembanyama’s exit into the night’s defining moment. He finished with four points and four rebounds in 12 minutes, and the ejection was the first of his NBA career.

The controversy carried extra weight because Wembanyama had already delivered one of the most dominant playoff performances of the postseason in Game 3. He scored 39 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked five shots, a line that placed him alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as only the fourth player in playoff history to post those numbers in a game. That backdrop made the question of further discipline more than routine game administration; it went to how the league would police the postseason when one of its biggest stars was involved.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson also pushed the issue into the open after the ejection, criticizing the officiating around contact on Wembanyama. For San Antonio, the ruling matters because its offense and postseason ceiling run through the 7-foot-4 center. For Minnesota, it means the Timberwolves still have to deal with him rather than benefit from a suspension. The NBA’s decision closed the disciplinary file, but it left the series and the arguments around enforcement very much alive.