MINNEAPOLIS — Chris Finch is one of the coolest dudes we've ever had around here as the head coach of a high-profile men's athletic team in the Twin Cities. This is based on his back story, him being straightforward, giving good answers to good questions, making quick work of bad ones, and never working hard to shine the light on himself, even as he's one of the three finalists to be the NBA Coach of the Year.

Whether the Timberwolves coach is calling out his team for a lousy performance or showering it with praise after a great one, there remains a composure and a discernible determination to either change the negative or to keep the positive going.

The reporters fully devoted to covering this team on a daily basis will tell you that he can get into his team with the best of them, whether when witnessing a lackadaisical practice, or at halftime of one of those clunkers.

The guess here is he can get away with that because he's not trying to be a tough guy; that it's easy for players to detect that he's not demeaning anyone, merely working to get the best out of them.

The biggest games he coached earlier in his career were in pro leagues in England, Belgium and Germany (where he was fired after 17 games) before he made his way back to the States, and then landed jobs as an NBA assistant.

Many of us — maybe most — watched the Timberwolves get embarrassed by the Phoenix Suns on the final Sunday of the regular season at Target Center. That put the Suns at 3-0 versus the Wolves for 2023-24, and landed them as Minnesota's opponent for the first round of the playoffs.

"Woe is us," "This is the worst possible matchup," became the declaration by a solid margin of sentiment in these parts, but immediately Finch was expressing gratitude that there would be five full days of preparation before playing Game 1 … time to adjust, to cook up new defensive plans.

Still, the Suns had played a hunk of the schedule without the Big Three of Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and newcomer Bradley Beal, and that seemed the explanation for their finishing with 49 victories, compared to 56 for the Wolves.

After bringing in Beal, the national optimism for the Suns was such that in the preseason they were the third choice to win the NBA title at +600 (6-to-1). The Wolves were 16th, at +6600 (66-to-1).

At best this series seemed a coin flip for Finch's Wolves against Frank Vogel's Suns. And then Finch, his assistants and his players took full advantage of those five days of prep — finding new ideas and new resolve — and they took apart the Suns, 120-95, in Game 1 on Saturday.

...continued

©2024 StarTribune. Visit startribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.