The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Atlanta Hawks 100-92 at Target Center on Monday, but their head coach Chris Finch was fuming after the game. The Hawks were missing several key players for this clash but nearly staged an improbable comeback and Finch blasted his Timberwolves players in his press conference.
“Listen, we made it close, they didn’t make it close,” Finch said. “That was a totally unacceptable second half of basketball. If we’re trying to be a team and go where we’re trying to go, that’s not good enough.”
When asked what was the biggest thing that was unacceptable from this game for him, Finch pointed to sloppiness, turnovers, and their approach. The 55-year-old then proceeded to call out his stars for messing around against short-handed teams.
“I thought we played really well to start the game, collectively,” Finch stated. “There were some guys who struggled to make shots or whatever but yeah, we do see it from time to time against short-handed teams. We come out here and we bulls*** and it starts with our top guys.”
Finch wondered if his players thought they could coast in the second half as they were up by 17 points at halftime. It did look like that might have been the case.
The Timberwolves were very sloppy in the third quarter, turning the ball over nine times to help the Hawks cut that lead down to six heading into the fourth. They had a chance to make it a four-point game in the final minute too and that should have never happened with all the players they were missing.
The Hawks were without Trae Young, Jalen Johnson, and Dyson Daniels against the Timberwolves. They are probably the three best players on the team and this should have been a blowout without them. Instead, Timberwolves fans were biting their nails at the end of this contest.
Understandably, Finch felt the need to call out his players. The Timberwolves should have stepped on the Hawks’ throats in the third quarter and killed the game but their sloppiness allowed the visitors to get back within touching distance.
While Finch and most watching believe that the Timberwolves made this a close game with their sloppiness, Anthony Edwards disagrees. In his postgame press conference, Edwards was informed about his head coach being upset and stated the Hawks deserve credit for how well they played in the second half.
“I don’t think it was like we wasn’t taking them serious,” Edwards said. “We just couldn’t make nothing and they started making shots, they went on a run. They’re an NBA team.”
Edwards, who had 23 points (6-20 FG), five rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one block on Monday, also praised the Hawks for defending well and forcing all those turnovers. The 23-year-old certainly doesn’t believe he and his teammates took their foot off the gas.
Whatever the case may be, the Timberwolves did at least get the win and are now 25-21 on the season. This was their third win in a row and they take on the Phoenix Suns next at Footprint Center on Wednesday at 9 PM ET.
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