Timberwolves Head Coach Chris Finch Ripped His Team And Karl-Anthony Towns For "Disrespecting The Game" And Hunting For KAT's Franchise Record 62 Points

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On the anniversary of Kobe Bryant dropping 81 points against the Raptors, Monday night sure was one hell of a night in the NBA. The biggest story of the night of course was Joel Embiid's historic 70, but we also had KD with 43 of his own and a double clutch game winner, Jaylen Brown cooking the shit out of Luka, and then of course what took place in the Twin Cities.

I'll asy this, I feel for Wolves fans. You get to witness literally the best performance in franchise history and you still somehow find a way to lose the game. For a team that's been so good this season, that had to be a little triggering given their history. On a night where Embiid goes nuclear with 70 and a win, it's tough for KAT to also drop 63 and lose. He probably got boned at the end, and even with it being a loss it was still one hell of a performance. When someone explodes like that and breaks their own record of 60, it's a pretty big deal that I think most people would be happy about. A shitty ending and result for sure, but it's hard to complain about what you got from KAT.

Well that's not entirely true. Wolves head Coach Chris Finch was furious. Disgusted even. Almost threw up right at the podium during his press conference because he had never seen a performance so repulsive from his team

You know what, I respect this. I get the immediate takeaway might be that Chris Finch is being an asshole here and is completely shitting on his franchise player who just completed a historic night……but he's also right. It's cool and all that KAT had 63, but this is a game in which the Wolves blew an 18 point lead, and Towns shot just 2-10 in the 4th quarter. It might not be the popular reaction, it wouldn't surprise me if this gets twisted into some sort of issue or drama, but it's the right reaction. Listen the Wolves are in a battle with OKC and DEN to maintain the top spot in the West. They're a young team that is trying to learn how to win at an elite level and compete for an NBA title. Blowing a game like tonight against the lowly Hornets isn't exactly a reason to celebrate.

The easy solution here is to just look at Joel Embiid and his 70. That came in a win and the vibe is entirely different. He's getting his flowers because as we know, you have to finish these types of performances off with a win. It's one of those situations where if you don't then who cares, even if that's not fair because KAT was really good. Celebrate all you want if you come out with a win, but when you collapse like that it changes the perception.

At the moment, the Wolves need to care more about building better habits. With this being their first true run at contention, they need to figure out how to win just like everyone else in that spot has. That comes with time and reps, and the regular season's sole purpose is for those types of reps. If historic performances happen along the way then so be it. So even if Finch gets killed for this rant, I get his point and it's what I would want my coach to do in his same position. 

Now I do think he shares just as much of the blame for how this game turned out, so maybe Finch should take some of that anger and be disgusted with his own performance as well.