Chris Finch should be smiling. Instead, seated on the podium in Target Center’s interview room after his Timberwolves tied up their first-round series against Memphis, the 52-year-old coach wears a long poker face while fidgeting with a black pair of eyeglasses on the table in front of him. Despite its gut-check victory, Minnesota was exposed by Grizzlies guard Desmond Bane, whose three-pointers carried the effortlessness of someone flicking raisins through a hula hoop.
For the second game in a row, Bane exploded behind the arc, going 8-for-12 for a game-high 34 points. (In Game 3 he went 7-for-15.) Responding to a question about the performance, Finch admitted that with Ja Morant also on the court “sometimes you can’t cover it all.” He praised Bane’s off-ball movement and quick release, then acknowledged how his own players somehow underestimated Bane’s ability.
“Sometimes I think his range catches our guys off guard still a little bit,” Finch said. “We kind of short-closed him a few times in the first half, and we talked about that at halftime. We can't do that.”
