It isn’t an Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves square off unless there is some postgame politicking. You saw that once again in the reigning NBA champion’s 113-105 win in the 2025 NBA Cup West Group A contest.
The ESPN marquee matchup was everything you hoped for as a Thanksgiving Eve special. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander battled through an illness and dropped an efficient 40 points. Unlike in last year’s Western Conference Finals, Anthony Edwards went bucket for bucket with 31 points.
Advertisement
And of course, you had Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch riled up. He berated the officials all game. Both teams combined for 75 free-throw attempts that extended this contest to the cusp of three hours. All three coach challenges were successful, with some flagrant fouls and technical fouls sprinkled in.
Afterward, Finch complained about the whistle. He was puzzled why Lu Dort’s foul on Julius Randle wasn’t reviewed. And how Rudy Gobert’s flagrant foul on Isaiah Hartenstein even materialized. Both plays were questioned in a Pool Report with Crew Chief Josh Tiven.
“I saw Dort throw Julius to the ground and get body slammed, but that wasn’t reviewed,” Finch said. “I saw a flop by Hartenstein that was reviewed. Rudy doesn’t get a lot of benefit of the doubt.”
If you’ve followed the NBA long enough, you know Finch has these occasional outbursts over the referees. He likely brings it up to help the Timberwolves in the future against the same opponent or with the same officiating crew. But a Pool Report shows that they remained confident in their calls and non-calls.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Chris Finch questions 2 calls/non-calls that favored OKC over Timberwolves
