Timberwolves punch Chris Finch’s ticket to NBA All-Star game with win over Houston
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch now has plans in two weeks.
Needing a win to send its bench boss to the NBA All-Star Game, Minnesota delivered a 111-90 victory over Houston on Sunday night at Target Center. Finch will coach the Western Conference All-Stars on Feb. 18 in Indianapolis.
That honor goes to the coach of the team with the best record in the conference two weeks ahead of the game. Oklahoma City and Minnesota finished Sunday’s slate with the same record: 35-15. The NBA uses conference record as its tiebreaker to determine the all-star coach. So with the Wolves holding a 24-8 conference record to the Thunder’s 21-11 mark, Finch got the nod over Mark Daigneault.
Wolves players have stated their desire to earn Finch that honor for the last week-plus. They’ve sung his praises for his impact on the team’s success for the last three years.
“He’s just a great coach to all the guys. He don’t kiss nobody (butts). He ain’t picking on nobody as far as like, ‘I’m not going to say nothing to him,’ ” Anthony Edwards said recently. “He’s like, ‘I’m gonna call everybody out on their (stuff),’ and he gonna coach us like a coach should do. Big shout-out to him. He does a great job.”
When Finch entered the locker room after the game Sunday, he was showered with water as his players celebrated the achievement.
“We just celebrated Finchy, celebrated Finchy and obviously the whole coaching staff,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “But the head of the snake is Finchy, so we just wanted to celebrate him in his moment.”
“I know our players were excited coming into the game to be able to do that for us,” Finch said, “so we really appreciate that.”
It’s another example of what Finch likes most about this group.
“They really root hard for their teammates, and they obviously root hard for their coaching staff,” he said. “It’s fun, it’s really fun.”
Minnesota played like a team determined to deliver a victory Sunday. The Timberwolves were suffocating defensively, holding the Rockets to paltry 36 percent shooting from the field, including just 35 percent on 3-point attempts.
Houston (23-26) is a strong defensive team, which has fueled its return to the fringe of relevance this season. But the Rockets don’t have much in the way of shot-makers. And when you don’t have shot-makers, you’re going to struggle mightily to score on Minnesota.
The Rockets scored just 95 points against the Wolves in Houston in early January.
In the minutes when Rudy Gobert was on the floor patrolling the paint Sunday, Houston had difficulty even generating a look at a bucket. Minnesota scored just 48 points in the first half, as both Edwards and Towns struggled against Houston’s physical defense. And yet, the Wolves took a four-point advantage into the half.
That’s how good Minnesota was defensively. Gobert was all over the floor, finishing with 17 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The lid came off the rim in a big way for Edwards in the third. He scored 22 points in the frame on 9-for-12 shooting, hitting even high-degree-of-difficulty shots with relative ease.
“It’s been a while since he’s had one of those,” Finch said of the run, “so it was good to see that again.”
Edwards finished with 32 points. He also picked up his ninth technical foul of the season. If he gets to 16, he will be suspended for a game.
Finch will likely remind Edwards of such in the near future. That’s what the coach does. He’s developed a culture of accountability throughout the team that’s played a massive role in helping the Timberwolves become the consistently great team they’ve grown into this season.
The reward for Finch and his entire staff for doing so is a trip to Indianapolis, to coach under some of the brightest lights the league has to offer.
“That probably was the greatest thing of this season,” Edwards said. “That’s dope for him to get recognized for how great he’s coached this year.”
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