The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night to advance to the NBA Playoffs as the seventh seed in the Western Conference. Los Angeles will take on the Memphis Grizzlies in round one.
Meanwhile, the Timberwolves are heading back home to host the winner of the New Orleans Pelicans-Oklahoma City Thunder game for a shot to be the eighth seed in the West. If they can advance there, the T-Wolves will take on the Denver Nuggets.
It was a hard-fought, entertaining game in which the Lakers trailed throughout. Los Angeles was able to storm back in the fourth quarter and seemingly had a game-winning three from Dennis Schroder until Anthony Davis decided to commit a “brain fart” foul (LeBron James’ words, not ours).
Regardless of how it happened, the Lakers were able to pull away with the victory while the T-Wolves let the game slip between their fingers. That has prompted some bitterness out of the Minnesota side of things, as head coach Chris Finch was not afraid to share his opinion about the officiating in the game.
Chris Finch on Karl-Anthony Towns: "He was in a heck of a rhythm until they whistled him to the bench."
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) April 12, 2023
Timberwolves’ Chris Finch reeks of bitterness after play-in loss to Lakers
We are not sure if we were watching the same game as Finch on the sideline but all of Karl-Anthony Towns’ fouls in this game were justified. This is how the referees have been officiating all season long and there was nothing egregious about any of the fouls called on KAT.
Were there some similar fouls that should have been called on the other end? Sure. But to insinuate that the refs took him out of a rhythm is silly. KAT took himself out of a rhythm with the fouls he committed.
I mean, c’mon Finch. What is the excuse here? Is a player allowed to grip another player’s neckline and drag him to the court?
Karl-Anthony Towns picks up his 5th foul with 10 minutes remaining in the 4th 👀pic.twitter.com/82ghNsgk8h
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 12, 2023
This does not change the fact that Towns was not able to get it done for the Timberwolves when it mattered down the stretch. KAT had several opportunities to put this game away for Minnesota both in the fourth quarter and overtime and was unable to do so.
It is impossible to blame the referees for the team’s star player not showing up and scoring a single point in the fourth quarter and overtime combined. Sure, Finch doesn’t need to come out and bury his own player but he does not need to seem bitter with the excuses.
But hey, it is a common trend for other teams to blame the officiating against the Lakers like the league has some kind of vendetta out against other teams and wants the Lakers to win. Let’s go with that.