Julius Randle first caught a glimpse into the fiery, competitive nature of coach Chris Finch after playing in New Orleans. There, Finch was an assistant coach when Randle spent a season with the Pelicans, but he was “low-key, chill.”
When Randle would play against Finch in the years after, he said Finch wouldn’t say much before or during games.
“I’m like, ‘Damn, Finchy, I love you bro, what’s going on?’ ” Randle said with a laugh at practice. “He had that feistiness, competitive edge to him. When I got here, I saw it full force.”
If fans ever had a doubt about that edge to Finch’s personality, they saw it on full display in Friday night’s 112-107 victory over the Thunder, when Finch earned the second ejection of his coaching career in the first quarter. It took multiple assistant coaches and security personnel to hold Finch back at halfcourt from going after the officials, who had not called a foul on the Thunder or grabbing and hitting Anthony Edwards and Randle during a single Wolves possession moments earlier.
Finch didn’t address reporters after Friday’s game; he left that to assistant Micah Nori, who took over for him after the ejection. But he explained his version of events after practice Saturday. While he didn’t plan on getting ejected, he said he “wanted to make my point” about the officiating.
“I thought early on, the tone was being set in the wrong direction, and I wanted to set about trying to change things. All credit to the guys. They really responded, picked up the pieces. The staff did an incredible job navigating that game. The most important thing is we got the win and that our guys responded and played well over the last three and a half quarters.”
The ingredients were perfect for a Finch combustion. First, Finch has been vocal about his officiating issues when facing the Thunder. After a win last season, Finch bemoaned that the Thunder get away with a lot of uncalled fouls on the defensive end of the floor, while their star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, gets plenty of touch fouls. So those non calls against Randle and Edwards set him off. Perhaps his ejection got his points across. The Wolves shot 47 free throws on the night to the Thunder’s 30.
“Ideally, whether it shakes out to be 47 free throws or 27 free throws, you just need the game called in a way that’s even on both sides. That’s everybody’s goal in this game,” Finch said. “Maybe there’s 57 free throws that could’ve been shot in that game last night. Who knows? I don’t know. It’s just trying to bring some intensity to the moment and have everybody react and respond to it.”
