Timberwolves coach Chris Finch is a life sentence, but he is also a big baseball fan. Often, during his press conferences, Finch sprinkles with references to baseball.
He used another when he talked about the aggressiveness with which the Wolves played the defense during their 143-101 victory against the Thunder on Saturday at the Target Center, a victory that announced their official arrival in the Western Conference final after having served two Clunkers at Oklahoma City.
“Sometimes you just have to throw your ball quick,” said Finch. “And we were trying to do too many other waste sometimes there.”
As in, the Wolves have stopped worrying about trying to shape their defense around the Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Aalexander, and they came to the heart of what they do well. They jumped on screens, trapped when he was there where changed, and stole and covered for each other.
For the first time in this series, the Wolves looked alike again, and this quick ball they threw? He landed unshakable in the area for a strike. They will need three others, because the Thunder is still in advance in Count 2-1, with match 4 on Monday.
“It shows us, more than anything, what we are able to do,” said goalkeeper Mike Conley, who had six points. “So now, we have established a standard for ourselves, like why do we not play with this type of effort every night? So, if we do not make it the next game, it is on us. It has nothing to do with them.”
After looking helpless against the Thunder in the third quarters of matches 1 and 2, the Wolves proved for themselves that they could turn the tables of their opponents and make the bodies that Oklahoma City gave them. The Wolves opened the evening with an advance of 34-14 after a quarter and held the thunder without point for 4 minutes, 47 seconds. Anthony Edwards was the to -stadium not only in attack – he scored 16 of his 30 points in the first quarter – but also on the defensive.
“I don’t know where it comes from, honestly,” said Edwards about the team’s defensive departure. “It was just a film this morning. We wanted to change it. We were changing, we wanted” black “to the ball, to change their way to be able to go down each time and bring the players to (go) hands to which we wanted them to go.”
