The Minnesota Timberwolves came into the season with lofty expectations after making a run to the Western Conference Finals a year ago. However, after trading Karl-Anthony Towns to the Knicks just ahead of training camp, the Wolves have not been able to find the same rhythm on the court that made them one of the West’s best a season ago.
Entering Wednesday night’s action, the Wolves were 25-21, tied for seventh in the West and riding a three-game winning streak. The flashes of what they can be have been there for the Wolves, but consistently finding that level has been a real issue. For head coach Chris Finch, his job is to figure out how to fire up his team to find that level and go on an extended run that can push them back into the playoff picture in the West. On Wednesday night, Finch went to the “get ejected” well to try and motivate the team and it worked to great effect, as he got tossed with the Wolves down two and they went on to beat the Suns 121-113.
Whether Finch meant to get tossed is up for debate. He was not screaming at the refs when he got tossed, instead he seemed to mumble something while standing next to Bradley Beal, who was getting set to inbound the ball — and then went ballistic and had to be held back by Anthony Edwards (video here). After the game, officials told the pool reporter in Phoenix that his second T of the night was for “derogatory comments” towards the officials. One would think that would be something profane or particularly jarring, but according to Chris Hine of the Star Tribune, the derogatory comment that crossed the proverbial line was calling the referees “bozos.”
On the second technical, Fraher said Finch made “derogatory comments toward all of the officials.” A source who asked not to be identified said Finch referred to the officials as “bozos.”
The best part of the entire situation is Bradley Beal’s facial reactions throughout, but, look, if “bozos” is getting Finch tossed I don’t understand how any player is successfully making it through 48 minutes without getting ejected. That can’t be where the line is drawn in a league where Draymond Green exists.
Perhaps this was one of those times where a coach wants to fire up his team and basically asks the refs to eject him and then makes a big scene after to get the boys going a little bit. That would make way more sense than getting T’d up for calling officials “bozos.”
