NBA WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS: TIMBERWOLVES VS WARRIORS

May 12, 2025

Chris Finch

Minnesota Timberwolves

Game 4 - Postgame Media Conference

Minnesota Timberwolves 117, Golden State Warriors 110

Q. To get two here, how do you process it? It was a battle in both games but this one in the fourth quarter, the way it hung around.

CHRIS FINCH: I thought a lot of the game we were not as sharp as we needed to be, particularly on the defensive end. And you know, obviously the big third quarter was huge. I thought we came out at halftime with the type of focus and intensity and purpose on offense and attention to detail on defense is what we needed from the start.

But for the most part, I thought, like, you know we were lucky to be just down a bucket at halftime. I thought we could have been down more. Thankfully thanks to the end-of-the-half three to keep it a little bit tight.

Q. What did you see just offensive execution in the third quarter that allowed you to solve what they were doing much better?

CHRIS FINCH: We just moved the ball. We didn't pass the ball. There so much holding and serving, and holding and serving, going nowhere, not doing any of the things that we talked about when they were in their zone.

And we just got better ball movement and made them chase it around and then, you know, got to the other side of the floor. Just the basic stuff that you need to do when your teams are playing the zone. It was not there the first half for sure.

Q. You mentioned maybe lucky to not be down more. Defensively what were some of the adjustments? What was the message at halftime?

CHRIS FINCH: The message at halftime, I thought we were short cutting our game plan. I didn't like our on-ball physicality, for one, and I just thought some of the routes we were taking on defense, we were just kind of too loose.

Q. How much do you think Ant's shot set the tone for his third quarter?

CHRIS FINCH: I think it was huge because it felt like one of those games where we were going to struggle to find a rhythm.

Like I said, I thought we might be down eight, ten at halftime with the way we had played. Fortunately I thought his shot kind of hit, pretty much an even game and if we came out and played with the type of purpose we needed to, I felt we were going to be okay.

Q. How have Ant and Julius complemented one another since the trade, and what do you get out of them both tonight in particular?

CHRIS FINCH: Julius had the great start to the game, and Ant obviously had the great third quarter.

So Julius has found Ant a lot early in some DHOs and seeking him out in transition, early attacks. He's found him in drive-and-kick situations or kick-out situations. Led to a lot of catch-and-shoot threes which obviously Ant is up that amount this year.

Ant has done a really good job of trying to find Julius in the post and that's led to a lot of really good offense for us, too. Yeah, they have done a really good job of playing off each other.

Q. A lot of offensive rebounds and second-chance points in the first half. McDaniels, in particular, had one rebound in the first half and a dozen in the second. What adjustments were made? Was it just effort?

CHRIS FINCH: Yeah, I thought we were just kind of doing 85 percent of the job out there in the first half. We needed to finish the plays off but we knew that they were going to be all over the glass, and they were. You know we just didn't go pursue enough.

So there was no adjustment. We had to lock in and finish plays off, whether it was getting rebounds or winning a one-on-one battle at the end of the move, that type of stuff.

Q. How do you approach that with Ant? In the first half of the game seemed like he was floating through defensively, and then in the second half, he looked super engaged defensively and his offense came with it.

CHRIS FINCH: I think he was one of the guys that was most vocal at halftime, and realized what was going on out there and we needed to be better. It started with him, really, and setting the tone.