Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch spoke to reporters after his team’s 131-122 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday night at Target Center. The win marked Minnesota’s fourth straight and improved their record to 25-13.
Finch praised the balanced offensive effort that produced 33 assists. “Just making the right play, keeping it simple. Ant with nine assists, Julius with eight. That’s always going to be a recipe for success for us. They did a really good job of drawing a crowd and getting off of it and guys stepped up and made shots.”
He noted low turnovers during key stretches. “We turned it over a little too much. In the second half we only had seven, but for a long time there until the end we really only had two or three turnovers and in the big run that we had. So that was key.”
Finch discussed Anthony Edwards reaching 10,000 career points at 24 years and 156 days old. “The scoring comes natural to him in a lot of ways. What I’m most pleased of is he’s just playing a great floor game. Driving it when the drive is there, getting off of it in the crowd, trusting his teammates, executing the offense, running plays, making the next pass, and moving well off the ball too.”
The coach highlighted strong starts in both halves. “We’ve been emphasizing better starts. Offensively, Julius really set a tone for us both halves. Defensively I thought we were all locked in pretty active, contesting everything, making everything difficult.”
Finch addressed challenges against Cleveland’s guards and bigs. “Those guards are a handful. Those bigs are super skilled. They got soft hands. They catch everything that’s thrown to them. So it really puts a lot of pressure on your pick and roll defense. Our guys were really good at reading each other in the paint.”
He commended Rudy Gobert’s effort despite limited scoring. “He was a monster on the offensive glass. He only got four, but he probably kept alive another at least another four or five. Their game plan was clearly to take a piece out of Rudy every time he rolls down. He kept his composure and played through it all.”
Finch spoke about the improved connection between Julius Randle and Edwards. “They’re back to having a better connection, a bit of chemistry. Playing off of each other a little bit better. Other guys initiating offense helps cuz now Ant can be the beneficiary of some Julius kickouts.”
He reflected on recent lessons that sparked the hot streak. “We saw it inside ourselves and sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. Those losses around the holidays were revealing. We just made a commitment to playing our best basketball. We challenged them and said we’re never going to know how good we’re really going to be until we just play better basketball every single night with a little bit more focus.”
On closing out the game, Finch said his team made enough plays. “A little loose in transition, lost Merrill a couple times. We made a couple hustle plays. Jaden was really big. Julius got the free throw rebound to kind of seal it. Ant had the one drive and finish.”
Minnesota shot 57% from the field and 53% from three while outscoring Cleveland 43-22 in the third quarter. The Timberwolves travel to Cleveland for the rematch on Saturday afternoon.
