Russell Westbrook hit KAT with the NBA version of "there's grown folks talking" when their teams collided on Tuesday night.
According to The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski, Minnesota's head coach Ryan Saunders ordered his players not to get into any verbal tussles with Russell Westbrook. Yet Karl-Anthony Towns and Dario Saric ignored Saunders advice, and in exchange, Westbrook showed them why they should always listen to their coach.
"Get to the fucking playoffs before you speak to me," Russ yelled at the two young players.
Although Minnesota went on to win the game by a score of 131-120 with Towns chipping in 41 points, Russ' comments might sting worse as the season winds down. Currently, the Timberwolves are sitting at the 10th seed in the West. And, including Wednesday's upcoming game against the Pistons, the team only has 18 chances to make up the 5.5-game difference between themselves and the San Antonio Spurs. Also, in between them and the last playoff spot is a hungry Kings team. When all these obstacles are taken into consideration, ESPN's BPI playoff odds give the Wolves just a 0.5 percent chance of making the playoffs.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the exact opposite situation. Right now, OKC is in the conference's fourth seed. Also accompanying this playoff berth is a strong chance that the team makes some postseason noise as both Russ and Paul George are playing at high levels.
