On Wednesday evening, the Minnesota Timberwolves dropped to 17-10 on the 2025-26 NBA season with a frustrating loss to the Memphis Grizzlies. Anthony Edwards missed his third straight game with a foot injury, with Ja Morant also sitting out for Memphis, and ultimately, Minnesota was unable to overcome an ice-cold second half shooting performance.
At one point late in the game, the Grizzlies had the ball up by six points with under thirty seconds left, and the Timberwolves understandably elected to intentionally foul to stop the clock. The officials took quite a while to call the foul on Jaden McDaniels, who had tried to foul Grizzlies guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, prompting an NSFW reaction from Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch.
Chris Finch's full heated exchange with the referee Zach Zarba.
“You just blew two calls. You f*cking know it".The entire conversation between the two can be heard pic.twitter.com/WFeUG7790Q
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 18, 2025
It should be noted that the game was, in all likelihood, out of reach for Minnesota by the time this delayed call occurred, so it can't exactly be identified as the reason for the loss.
Zarba showed impressive restraint by not giving Finch a technical foul despite his obvious frustration.
Overall, the Timberwolves still sit seven games over the .500 mark and were able to mostly hold down the fort in Edwards' absence, including picking up an impressive road win over the Golden State Warriors last week.
Still, they'll certainly be hoping that Edwards is able to return to the lineup for Friday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, as the offense went stagnant in the second half against a Grizzlies team that is starting to show some signs of life after a rough start to the season.
In any case, the Timberwolves will next take the floor on Friday evening at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That game is slated to tip off at 9:30 pm ET.
