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The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Tuesday night’s Game 4 with their backs up against the wall. Down 3-0 in the Western Conference Finals, a sweep seemed imminent. Not only did the Wolves need a win to extend their season, they needed to pull it off on the road. The Timberwolves reigned supreme in Game 4 with an impressive win over the Dallas Mavericks.
A strong first quarter gave the Timberwolves a strong lead to work with. However, the Mavs quickly closed the gap as the two teams went into halftime all knotted up. With the game hanging in the balance, head coach Chris Finch showed his emotion in the third quarter. The Wolves’ signal-caller got called for a technical after a strong response to a pivotal offensive foul call.
On the play, Wolves’ center Karl-Anthony Towns picked up his fifth foul of the night after incidentally elbowing PJ Washington in the face while trying to lean in to draw a foul. Finch stepped up, literally, for his talented seven-footer and chewed out official Scott Foster in the process. As a result, the injured head coach got hit with a quick tech with less than 17 minutes to go in a do-or-die game. From that moment on, his team responded.
The Wolves went on to win 105-100 with stellar clutch-time play from their star offensive duo. Towns and Anthony Edwards combined for 54 points on impressive 20-38 shooting. After the game, Minnesota guard Mike Conley shared the impact a coach’s emotion can have in a game after Finch’s impressive technical foul.
Mike Conley highlights impact of Chris Finch’s technical
The Timberwolves lived up to the old cliche of “leaving it all on the court” on Tuesday night. Finch’s vivacious response came despite his recent surgery to repair his torn patellar tendon. With Minnesota’s coach putting the team before his own physical safety, the Wolves’ players took notice. Mike Conley specifically shared the role it played in the Timberwolves big Game 4 win.
“You forget the impact it can have when your coach is up getting technicals, yelling and we see him hobble around to do it, it’s impressive. It lit a fire in all of us.”
The first three games of this series were all Dallas in crunch time. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving both consistently dazzled with their elite shotmaking. However, Finch’s action sparked a real change heading into the fourth quarter. Every big Dallas bucket was met with an even larger Wolves’ answer. The team rallied around their fearless coach.
The Timberwolves still have a lot of work to do to even up this series. No team in NBA history has come back from a 0-3 deficit, but the Wolves now find themselves one game closer to pulling off the unthinkable. Minnesota’s win in a potential elimination game has given the Timberwolves hope heading back home for Game 5. If the Timberwolves do go on to win this Western Conference Finals, the Chris Finch inspiring technical foul might be the pivot point that Minnesota badly needed.
