Chris Finch met the Game 1 cameras in San Antonio with a rare admission. The Minnesota Timberwolves had just stolen the opener of the Western Conference Semifinals from the Spurs in a defensive grind, and yet the head coach spent the early minutes of his press conference owning a coaching error in the closing seconds.
The context was a side-out-of-bounds with 34 seconds left and a tight game on the line. Finch declined to call a stoppage and trust an inbounds set, and Minnesota nearly coughed up the play.
"That's on me. That's actually my fault. I should have called timeout there. 34 seconds left, side out of bounds. Thought we could execute, but we didn't. And I should have called timeout to get us into a good play. I should have called timeout when I saw we were struggling to get it in. But fortunately, we were lucky enough to hang on," Finch said.
He opened, however, by praising the way the Wolves had absorbed Spurs pressure for 48 minutes in a series most around the league had Minnesota losing in five.
"It was a great game. Defense was at all-time high on both ends. I don't know what the biggest lead was in the game. We were up nine. They were up seven. But it felt a lot tighter than that even, even when we were up. Really good job by our guys just figuring out a way to make enough shots and sticking with the defense," Finch said.
Anthony Edwards' presence drove the fourth quarter, and Finch did not pretend otherwise. After hyperextending his knee on Sunday, Edwards returned in 48 hours to give the Wolves 25 minutes and a fourth-quarter pulse.
"Oh man, it was huge. By that time he found a little bit of a rhythm. I thought Julius was really good. Just subtly good with everything he was doing off ball, and obviously when he had the ball in his hands. Ant was awesome. He was really good. I forgot how good he was, actually," Finch said.
The coach also flagged Terrence Shannon Jr.'s third quarter as the moment the Wolves wrestled control of pace.
"I think he just found his second wind more than anything. He kind of got downhill, does what he does best. We used him at the top of the floor and they were pressuring him and he got by him. PR guys went into the paint all night long and we eventually were able to loosen them up a little bit by doing so," Finch said.
The other defining defensive thread was Rudy Gobert against Victor Wembanyama. Wembanyama collected 12 blocks but was held to 11 points, the most lopsided block-to-points night a player has had in playoff history. Finch credited his French All-NBA defender for setting the tone in a way that did not show up on the box score.
"Especially Rudy on Webby was pretty. The game plan, no, not really. It's just like a little more clued into what they're trying to do. The way you got to defend him is, he's really hard to defend. We did a really good job of getting out and contesting and making everything difficult," Finch said.
The most pointed answer of the night went to a question about Mike Conley's role against the Spurs' bigger guards. Conley hit a third-quarter three and a fourth-quarter bucket Finch refused to call lucky.
"There's always a role for Mike Conley. The guy's an amazing basketball player. He's an unbelievable winner. He competes no matter what the matchup is out there," Finch said.
Minnesota's defensive identity, even with Edwards limited and Wembanyama looming, looked like the version that took down Denver in the first round. Game 2 returns to San Antonio with the Wolves having already done the difficult thing — they have stolen one. Finch's last 34 seconds were ugly, but his first 47 minutes earned the right to talk about it from the winners' podium.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/chris-finch-wolves-spurs-game-1-postgame-timeout-mike-conley-rudy-gobert-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
