Chris Finch spoke about toughness in win over Thunder

Chris Finch spoke about toughness in win over Thunder

Uh you know we just played tougher in the second half they they actually were you know making more hustle plays making more tough you know tough-minded plays in the first half beating us to the offensive rebounds beating beating us to the 50-50 balls and I think coming out

We set the tone early we were able to grab a lead you know some sloppy play obviously gave it back um but we weathered that storm for ourselves which we hadn’t been doing of late so that’s good um you know the separation came down the stretch with our defense

Finally you know so we saw that defense kind of locked down in the second half yeah yeah absolutely we had a lot of guys that we throw throw it sh you know was a tough cover every night you look he goes to the line 15 16 times it’s

Kind of tough to guard him if that’s the case so um you know but we did a pretty good job of just mixing it up and you know just trying to fly around after that and you know they had some guys that we really shot the ball well from

The three-point line that that we were kind of you know willing to live with and they hurt us for a bit but that dried up for them too then at the right time for us some nice contributions from the bench yeah I mean Nas hit a couple

Big ones um uh you know jmck was huge really big really big um and you know uh really like the game that Jaden played all the way around so how important was it for you just to to not have Mike conell in this game to be able to see

Your team be able to finish out this fourth quarter yeah you know that’s what we’ve been struggling with and um you know Anthony did a really good job of picking his spots trusting his teammates Ates uh you know playing clean and quick getting downhill putting the pressure on

Them um and you know we we we really did a good job of finishing this game which we hadn’t been doing so hopefully it’s a good step and we can build on that part of it you guys obviously had just went through a rough patch here very clear about kind of the foundational

Principles that uh you know the the maturity this performance how does that measure up to your demands or expectations yeah I thought it was a great a really locked in performance I mean of course there were some mistakes here and there um like we said we just

We challenged him about a little bit more effort this is a really good team that you know kind of makes all the gritty plays so we we did a better job there um I mean I like the fact that you know we again we survived their own

Adversity you know we we threw the ball away uh you know I think back-to-back possessions when they were making their run um and um you know everybody kind of played a pretty clean game we didn’t force anything when it wasn’t there and um you know as a result I thought we got

Good looks so it’s all about making the right play that’s what we’re preaching to our guys so any other questions yeah Chris 131,000 or more NBA games have been played only 45 times and anybody scored 62 points or more and it happened twice week ago tonight 4 days later happened

Two more times right get any explanation the on slau well I think I think it’s pretty simple I mean know well first we have a lot really you know a lot of really talented players in the league uh that can create their own offense for sure um that’s always been the case

Always been great players in this league pace is up you know probably 25 possessions more a game per team per night than uh in the 80s 90s even um three-point shooting the volatility of it is extremely high I think the most impressive of all those Feats was you

Know Luca going uh for 70 on 33 shots I mean it’s incredible uh efficiency I think teams which have have spent a lot of time trending their offenses towards efficient offense and you know sometimes you’re going to have nights where everything goes in and it’s really hard

To guard right now individually with the skill um you know physicality on the ball is uh is you know is not really allowed like it had been in in years past um so you know you kind of have to deal with the problem when the problem

When the ball gets someplace but um yeah I mean we’re going to continue to see it with the level of shooting that we now have in the league so and and the emphasis on shooting as many threes any other questions coach real quick tell me about the effort on chat tonight I mean

He he didn’t do much he got shut down yeah Jaden was awesome you know um you know Jaden was great um we did a good job when Rudy was on him did a really good job too of of of of of executing our pick and roll coverages so he didn’t

Get a lot of Separation um you know he’s a phenomenal player and we we’ve we’ve uh had with him the last few games that we’ve played so um you know Jaden has the length to kind of bother him he’s got the quickness I think to get up under his

Dribble a little bit and he he did an excellent job so you mentioned uh yeah guys you will to live with getting threes and obviously a lot of that is having Rudy on the what do you think of Rudy’s impact especially late yeah uh in terms

Of shutting down the paint yeah I mean Rudy’s has this uh incredible sense like just like a scorer likes to take over the game he has an incredible sense of being able to like up his presence in the paint even become you know a little bit more uh active a little bit more

Early U being able to cover a lot of ground getting up then getting back and getting back out to challenge it’s pretty special to watch you know when you really think about it and he’s he’s kind of Switched in he’s communicating he’s getting himself out of the matchups

That um we don’t want early um and he’s been doing that for us all year and that’s a big part of why we’ve been able to close games is his defense down the stretch um it’s been [Applause] Elite

Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch after the win over the Thunder.