The Minnesota Timberwolves pulled off a 104-102 win on the road in Game 1 of their Western semifinals series against the San Antonio Spurs last night. Following the win, Chris Finch, their head coach, pointed out that, in his opinion, the league had missed a few goaltending calls on Victor Wembanyama during the game.
But after a bit of time to review footage, he spoke to the media once again and doubled down on his claim while ringing the alarm bells on what the league is allowing Victor Wembanyama to get away with.
“Obviously, he had a historic night,” said Finch on Wembanyama recording a triple-double with 12 blocks. “When we looked at them, at least four of them were goaltending, maybe even a fifth. To me, it’s a little alarming that none of them were called.
“Here’s a generational shot blocker, who is 7’6″, who goes after everything, and there’s no heightened awareness that these blocks could be goaltends? The third possession of the game was a goaltend, and a fairly obvious one.”
“So let’s just say there were four, that’s eight points. You know the value of eight points in an NBA game? It’s massive. That’s also 33% of his blocks were goaltending uncalled. If I were to give you a 33% raise, you’d like that, right? That’s a huge number,” Finch added.
“We’re going to keep coming; we’ve got to make some better decisions for how we attack the rim. All credit to the guys for not being discouraged that we should have walked away with eight more points. But again, it’s alarming that not a single one of them was called.”
Rudy Gobert, who was the primary matchup on Victor Wembanyama, his national teammate, last night, also spoke about the missed calls on Wembanyama.
“He fouled me on the first one. But if you look at them, probably three or four. I wish I had that type of treatment too,” he joked. “But yeah, he was a big presence for them [inside the paint].”
Wembanyama recorded his first playoff triple-double last night, with 11 points, 15 rebounds, 12 blocks, and five assists. But he struggled on the offensive end as he shot 5-17 from the floor (29.4 FG%) and missed all eight of his shots from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Rudy Gobert had seven points, 10 rebounds, three assists, four steals, and one block while shooting 3-7 from the field (42.6 FG%). Until the league potentially begins reviewing its missed calls on Wembanyama closely, will this stop the Timberwolves from being aggressive at the rim? I don’t think so.
Jaden McDaniels Explains Wolves’ Solution For Victor Wembanyama
Jaden McDaniels spoke to the media following Game 1, where he implied that the Wolves should not be scared of being aggressive at the rim just because Wembanyama is inside the paint.
“You just gotta act like he’s not there. I mean, he’s gonna get blocks. He’s the tallest person in the world. He’s going to get blocks. Just keep consistently going at the rim, sometimes he might not be there, sometimes he might catch you, but just keep going,” McDaniels said.
The Timberwolves were 2-1 against the Spurs in their regular season series and are now up 1-0 in the Western semifinals. Clearly, they have the results to feel like they have found a way around Wembanyama.
But will this really help them? Or will it only help Wembanyama develop the confidence to handle persistent pressure and have more such games where he has a high number of blocks? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
