Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch is looking to set a tone with the officials following their Game 1 loss to Golden State at home. Finch was visibly upset over the way he felt the Warriors were allowed to get away with aggressively fouling Rudy Gobert with very few whistles blown.
"On defensive rebounding, [the Warriors] do a lot of fouling, holding, shoving, pushing and tackling Rudy [Gobert]," Finch told reporters following Game 1. "That's clear. We sent a bunch of those clips in to the league. In fact, I'm not sure I know another player in the league with Rudy's pedigree that is allowed to be physically beaten on the way he is. And so we gotta address that one way or another."
One game into this series that could very well go the distance (especially with Steph Curry’s hamstring injury) and Finch is already seemingly waving the white flag, signaling that his team is in trouble. Minnesota isn’t wasting time by only calling this out in the media.
Complaining about the refs shows the Timberwolves don't have much faith in themselves
According to Finch, they’re sending clips to the league office. Playoff hoops aren’t the same as the regular season in the NBA. Referees allow a little more physicality to some extent, which shouldn’t be an issue for a player like Gobert. After all, he’s a four-time defensive player of the year.
Coaches are supposed to advocate for players, especially in these types of situations, but this sounds more like complaining and excuse-making. Gobert is already one of the least respected players of his caliber around the Association. All this sounds like is his coach whining to the league about how unfair the refs were to Gobert in the first game of the series.
Make no mistake, the officials in Game 2 will likely take a different approach to Gobert and pay more attention to how Golden State plays him. Gobert may get a few more calls that he didn’t in the first game, but it still sounds like an alarm signaling trouble for Minnesota.