“We’re Always Going To Battle.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 03.19.24

“We’re Always Going To Battle.” | Chris Finch Postgame Sound | 03.19.24

Chris your short-handed team battled right to the very end what would you say was the difference in this one well we’re always going to battle so proud of the guys for that I mean the difference was you know they uh two threes by yic Porter pops up hits eight

In a row or whatever three buckets in a row I don’t know what total that was the difference I mean they got the momentum back and then then we were chasing the game from from there so your third quarter defensively really strong was that what kind of got your momentum back

Yeah I mean you know regardless of who we have or don’t have um I thought we were looking for shortcuts defensively in the first half um ball contained was poor ball pressure was poor we just weren’t we weren’t fighting people enough you know it’s just kind of

Letting them go where they wanted to and kind of afraid to touch him and you know ironically when you’re afraid to touch him you get called for a lot of soft fouls as a result and then um and then you know we picked up the physicality uh in the

Second half and it made all the difference in the world so Chrissy and Jaden go to the rim the way that he did was that kind of what you want in terms of aggressiveness from him offensively yeah I mean he’s got to keep it clean keep it simple you know just get

Downhill use his length use his uh you know finishing abilities got a great touch when he gets down there um doesn’t need to over complicated off the bounce you know um it was good to see you know really good silver lining for us is that he had a great game offensively um you

Know and he’s been struggling to find that kind of touch and rhythm so U shot the ball well shot with confidence made big ones um you know kind of got us started offensively too by being aggressive downhill so Kyle gets into fall trouble early like what did you see

From Luca just seemed to to battle as much as he could yeah I mean Luka you know played great uh in terms of you know fighting and fighting you know kind of needed him to make a couple more open shots you know uh but he got good looks

He took him with confidence just didn’t go in for him tonight so um when you’ve got one offensive guy that everything seems kind of centered on like does it sometimes help to have a bunch of role players around him I guess um who just seem comfortable as continuing to play

The game even when he’s going on like a heater or something they just kind of seem to continue to do what they’re doing and ready for the next possession yeah for sure I mean I think uh you know those guys uh U you know understand uh you know actually an’s done a really

Good job of getting off it in the crowd and those guys have really benefited from it and uh you know I thought in the first half like we did didn’t really do a good job of that uh everybody um you know when you when you’re down like with

The bigs that we didn’t have like offensively we just it took us a while to find any kind of purpose just because you know we’re not used to playing with that many Smalls um but yeah I mean I think our guys do a really good job of

You know if anyone gets on a roll but obviously with Ant and the position he’s in um you know those guys are unaffected by anything so what what’s the biggest growth you’ve seen an ant he’s been in these positions before where he’s had to be reli done to score a lot of points

But it just seems like he’s approaching every possession with pretty good mentality yeah I think that’s it I think it’s just understanding like um you don’t you don’t have to like you know hit hit a home run every time down you know if if certainly be aggressive draw

The crowd make the right play but um you know I thought and it doesn’t matter like you know he didn’t I he don’t think he believe I don’t believe he scored in the fourth um you know that’s probably on me maybe try to get the ball in his

Hands a little bit more but um you know we had some other decent looks uh and guys you know U will normally step up and make those things so that’s that’s what we’ve been preaching Chris uh that these ant third quarters have kind of regardless of what

Your roster complexion is for a game that’s been something that’s happened throughout the season what do you think kind of fuels that for him to have these 15-point third quarters me I think um just you know kind of recognizing you know how teams have been playing them getting a little bit more comfortable

With what’s what’s coming you know seeing some things maybe at halftime helps him I’m not sure you can ask him um you know just I think we’ve been a pretty good third quarter Team all year and you know some of that is while we’re not the best transition team in terms of

Converting um like in the open court you know we do get into stuff and he can get his pull-up game going and that kind of stuff so we you know we we’ve had some good defensive third quarters this season I think that’s really kind of released some good offense

Too they had you double up on the board in the first half it seemed like you were getting rebounds with speed rather than size in you know that kind of fly around mentality does that take a while to adjust to to get yeah just we we

Needed to have more of a swarm mentality in the paint you know um uh you know there were times where I mean they were bigger uh than we were and you know I think we tried to box them one-on-one in the first half it didn’t work um so in

The second half we just you made made the effort of multiple guys getting back in and putting bodies on and um you know it’s tough you know it’s tough when they’re down there for four five six seven eight seconds of an offense and then they then they’re big and strong so

Um you know but the guys did a good job of like competing in the second half and then 28 points off turnovers is another kind of fly around stat that you guys have what do you give up when you are kind of playing that way going for not gambling but definitely playing

That kind of fly around stuff I mean when you’re when you you know when you’re in the position we were I don’t think you give up a whole lot I mean I think if you try to play Toe to Toe you’re not you know not probably not

Going to win that one so you just got to try to you know you can junk up the game with different defenses or trapping or whatever but we I first and foremost we just tried need to junk up the game with some physicality and some activity I

Didn’t you know I didn’t see that in the first half so talked a lot about early in the season this team need to be more mature being you know develop some toughness at this point in the season season with you know in a game like tonight given the circumstances is this

Team in a in a good place do you think mentally and toughness wise as it kind of comes down the stretch of of the Season here I think so I mean we’re tough I don’t doubt our toughness um you know guys compete every single night they compete no matter what

The circumstances are we expect to win um we come back you know from deficit uh root for each other so I think we got all the all the makings of a tough team um you know joic had just two assists tonight how did you uh feel about your defensive rotations after doubling him

In the post on some of his touches good I mean uh you know once we were a little bit more aggressive with it I thought in the first half we were like kind of tentative you know we don’t do a lot of doubling so got naturally guys probably

A little lag time on the recognition of it um you know and then they tried to repost a lot of it and I thought we did a good job of standing that up and um you know guys executed that really well um thought that was key does it feel

Natural you think for some of these guys to flip the switch back like 2021 22 basketball um when when like the Personnel requires it um you talking about like fly like two on the ball fly around that kind of so yeah I think so I mean guy you know guys uh you know

Pretty comfortable at it um some of it you know um you know it suits them their length their activity their quickness so yeah

SUBSCRIBE » https://bit.ly/WolvesYTSub

Stay connected with all things Timberwolves:

TWITTER » https://twitter.com/Timberwolves
INSTAGRAM » https://www.instagram.com/timberwolves/
FACEBOOK » https://www.facebook.com/MNTimberwolves

#NBA #Minnesota #Timberwolves #Wolves #RaisedByWolves #AnthonyEdwards #Ant #KarlAnthonyTowns #KarlTowns #Jaden #JadenMcDaniels #KAT #RudyGobert #Rudy #Gobert #MikeConley #Conley