A few weeks ago, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said That physicity in the NBA qualifiers had “gone too far” and “disturbed the flow”. On Wednesday, one day after the defeat of 99-88 from Timberwolves in the first match in his series of second round against the Golden State Warriors, Finch became more precise.
“On the defensive rebound, (the warriors) make a lot of fouling, outfit, push, pushing and attacking Rudy (Gobert),” ended the journalists. “It is clear. We have sent a bunch of these clips to the League. In fact, I’m not sure I know another league player with the Pedigree of Rudy who is authorized to be physically beaten on the way. And therefore we must approach this way or another.”
Asked if Gobert needed to push the opponents in the same way, Finch said: “He pushed – I mean, there was a room last night when (Brandin) Podziemski clearly grabs him and then he throws justice with our own hands when we can. Clips.
In response, Golden State coach Steve Kerr told journalists: “I didn’t see a single fault on any of these pieces.” After a few laughs, he clearly indicated that he would not chat with Finch: “No, yes, there is a lot of physics in the path, that’s for sure, and they could certainly have called some.”
Kerr and the Warriors, however, have their own problems with physics. This is a problem at the league scale.
“I was upset the first 10 minutes (Match 1),” said Kerr. “It was again like Houston. They were again marked by Bear Steph (Curry), and they could have called six faults. But the league established physicity in the playoffs.”
During the playoffs, officials “constantly allowed the teams to sneak,” he said.
“For me, it’s crazy there, what’s going on,” said Kerr. “Everyone is increasing. There was no game.
Kerr had a smile on his face when he dropped the line to send clips to the League, so he may not have been completely serious about this part. However, he would like to see an effort made to clean the games.
“I mean, Jimmy (Butler) displays Donte (Divincenzo, and) Donte naked Jimmy’s shit – he strikes him,” said Kerr. “And they are faults. But again: can you call each of them? No. But can you give a early tone and try to clean it? Yes, I think it’s the idea.”
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Kerr has repeatedly acknowledged that managers have difficult work. This is particularly true when the teams actually use the reluctance of officials to call an extreme amount of faults in each game as a strategic advantage.
“It’s a really difficult thing to control,” said Kerr, “because everyone plays so hard and they know what the other run team and if you call each fault – I mean, Ime (Udoka) said in our Houston series: keep supervising, they can’t call them all. Basketball.”
For eight playoffs, Curry “had no freedom of movement,” said Kerr. “They may have called four or five calls in eight games, and we look at a band: they are literally stifling Steph. This is a fault. But they allow it.”
Coaches like Kerr and Finch can be opposed to the way games are officiated, but if the opponent is physical, they have no choice but to tell their players to try to correspond to this physique.
“I am sure that Chris’ complaints are justified, just like mine,” said Kerr. “The two teams will have a lot to complain at the end of each eliminatory match. I do not know what is the solution, apart from what I just said: can you call the stuff early to give a tone and try to make the two teams understand where the line is?
