Frustrated Finch: 'Maybe we gotta start flopping'

DENVER -- In his Monday night pregame session with reporters, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch reiterated his frustration with Jamal Murray's 16 free throws in the Denver Nuggets ' Game 1 win.

"Maybe we gotta start flopping, too," Finch said.

In a roundabout answer, Finch shined a larger spotlight on what he believes is a league-wide trend of scorers exageratting contact while driving into the lane and flailing away to draw a whistle.

Finch then compared it to his two leading scorers, Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards, who combined for nine free throws in the Game 1 loss. Denver shot 33 as a team. Minnesota shot 19.

"Julius is not a flopper," Finch said. "Ant is not a flopper. They are physical drivers. They play through the first line of contact. A lot of times that point of contact, if you were to spill away, you get a foul. But if you keep going, [referees] take a play-on mentality."

Nuggets coach David Adelman bristled at the suggestion that Murray benefited from a soft whistle in the series opener, noting that four of Murray's 16 free throws were due to a flagrant foul on a 3-pointer and a technical foul.

"So it was 12 [free throws]," Adelman said. "And he got fouled. It's the playoffs. Everyone politics after games. But let's at least list out the 16 free throws and what actually happened. This wasn't a game where he was walking to the line. He was playing through a lot of physicality. It's what [the Timberwolves] do. They toe the line."

Finch acknowledged that "some of them were fouls" but said, on rewatch, "they weren't all fouls."

"The league is in a place right now where you draw contact, spill away, you get rewarded," Finch said. "Guys who try to play through contact, that first level of contact and stay with the drive, they tend not to be rewarded. Fouls are rewarded up the floor and not in and around the paint."

The Timberwolves eliminated the Nuggets in a fierce seven-game series back in the 2024 playoffs that sparked what has become one of the NBA's better rivalries. It is currently being renewed in the first round of the 2026 playoffs, complete with a back-and-forth between the two head coaches prior to Game 2.

"I do think sometimes you watch the film and say, 'Yeah, that guy got fouled,'" Adelman said. "There are nights, believe me, where we play Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander] or somebody who shoots a lot of free throws and I don't go back to clips saying, 'I can't believe he got all these calls.' I go: 'Why are we fouling so much?'"