Chris Finch on Victor Wembanyama’s historic night: “He had a lot of blocks… He had a couple of uncalled goaltendings too. Those are valuable points we’d like to have back.”
Can we get them in waiver form to be redeemed when we need them? Cause if so I’m down
Best the refs can do is just keep allowing it all series, sorry
Hmph >:(
Can we put Joan on Rudy’s shoulders as a consolation prize? The ultimate shot blocker
I personally vote we do that with Jaylen Clark.. just throw him up at the backboard and whatever happens happens.
Mike Leach considered throwing a little person on 3rd or 4th and 1.
Might as well move that strategy to basketball.
MechaShiva! MechaShiva!
Need a menards 11% rebate, feels apt for minnesota
I’m currently wearing a Menards doorbuster quarter zip. The math checks out.
“As usual I have to settle for an I.O.U.”
I really loved it when Castle was pushed to the ground in the back and then called for his 5th foul. Yet it’s the Wolves complaining here?
Lmao
Imagine in the playoffs when refs miss calls you just get extra points in the next game
Imagine a sport where you could bank points for the next game
Reallocate some of those goaltend bucks to our free throws and we almost shoot 50% as a team
I gotta be honest, NBA needs a goal tending camera for wemby cause the shit he gets away with his so stupid. It’s already unfair that he’s 8ft tall, but you let him goaltend too. Like damn NBA make it less obvious who the next golden child is.
they should be reviewed during play like 2/3pt line shots and added without stoppage.
They do that for college
your mom goes to college
Your mom is a beautiful and educated lady
how dare you
I heard she got a degree in Deez
What are deez?
IN BED
The Wemby rule
The problem is what if he goaltends multiple times in a play and then the team also scores. That would mean more than one FGM in a single play.
With 2/3pt shots, you don’t need to stop because scoring either stops play and has the same impact to the flow of the game. A goaltend should stop the clock, so they can’t just keep playing after it.
For real. There was one goal tend that was so fucking blatant - like the ball hit the bottom and had no chance at going in, but Wemby still swatted it away and that’s still a goaltend.
I didn’t see the play you’re talking about but if the ball hits something and has no chance of going in it’s not a goaltend.
During a field goal attempt, touch a ball, which has a chance to score, after it has touched any part of the backboard above ring level, whether the ball is considered on its upward or downward flight. During a field goal attempt, touch a ball, which has a chance to score, after it has touched the backboard below the ring level and while the ball is on its upward flight
During a field goal attempt, touch a ball, which has a chance to score, after it has touched any part of the backboard above ring level, whether the ball is considered on its upward or downward flight.
During a field goal attempt, touch a ball, which has a chance to score, after it has touched the backboard below the ring level and while the ball is on its upward flight
It would fit one of these two categories right?
It was a reverse layup where sharp got hammered. No foul or goaltend, but a “block”.
Who is Sharp?
I assume he means Shannon? I mean, the most egregious block was the second one at the beginning of the game that went off glass. No idea how you miss that - it was clear as day during the broadcast at real time.
Shannon Sharpe Jr.
If they’re pushing wemby, it ain’t happening
The refs literally can’t see it.
He is going to bring robot refs.
I can’t wait.
The contact on the wrist/hand on some of the blocks was pretty rough too. Refs seem to be super selective on whether they call the follow-through on a foul or not despite it being the big rule change they announced at the start of the season
Hawkeye would be perfect for this.
A new record for the most blocks in a single playoff game ever gets a lot more hype for the league than fair and accurate goaltending calls though.
Finch is right to call it out and try to put attention on it, but we probably just need to work around it 🤷♂️
Just put some sensors on the backboard and call it good. I’ll even go to microcenter and pitch in a Raspberry pi to start.
What abt the net
Has he been getting away with goal tends like all season and all playoffs? This is literally the first time I’ve heard anyone complain about him goal tending am I missing something or are people just being hyper reactive cause it’s the playoffs?
The second one was so bad. Blind ass refs
Blinded by stardom
*cheating ass refs
And yet the crowd in San Antonio blaming the refs for them losing? Lol, get some perspective here San Antonio. I know your homers, but come on now, you guys didn’t lose this game reffing wise
It was blocked by Barnes first
Id also like to have some of those missed free throws back as well coach.
Chris “Petty” Finch does not miss an opportunity.
Wolves at the line, not so much.
This isn’t petty, though?
It’s a double edged sword. Petty one day is soothsayer the next. Let’s not forget how everyone in this sub loved it when he was the first coach to call SGA’s foul-baiting bullshit out directly.
I noticed the tide turned against him when he said it was disrespectful that Rudy didn’t get to be a DPOY finalist. People seemed annoyed by that for some reason!
(He didn’t say Rudy deserved to win DPOY over Wemby, he just said that he should’ve finished higher than 4th lol. And then Rudy had one of the best defensive series of his career against Denver. So, it worked!)
He can be snippy, but if you watch his/the players’ press conferences enough, you know he tells our players to let him handle their frustrations with the refs so as to keep their heads cool. This is him following through on that.
He’s not “being petty”, he does this stuff FOR HIS PLAYERS to massage their egos and confidence that he’s in their corner, while also maintaining a chip on their shoulder. This is what coaching at this level requires! This is part of what “ego management” is and it’s why he’s a good coach.
“Denver picked us” wasn’t even true, he of all people knows that, but it was perfect bulletin board material to fire up the team (and it worked!)
What is petty about accountability? Him holding the refs accountable doesn’t mean he isn’t holding his guys accountable for missed FTs.
They were objectively incorrect calls that cost them at least 6 points. What the fuck does their free throw percentage have to do with anything??
The producers not showing replays and announcers not acknowledging goaltends was fucking hilarious. Might be one of the most fraud block games of all time
I counted 2 missed goaltends. He still had 10 blocks lol
The fact they didn’t show any replays was very strange. Usually they love showing replays of blocks and Wemby had plenty.
They literally called his second block a goaltend and showed the replay. Let’s be fair, although they probably could’ve done better to show all the blocks.
I can also think of 3 blocks that were very clear fouls.
So if we are going to re-litigate this, how about all those fouls on Wemby every offensive possession, where they are grabbing and holding him because he’s too tall to deal. Randle, McDaniels, and Reid were already in foul trouble, they should have fouled out based on the missed fouls 🤷🏽♂️
There’s tons on things that are missed on both ends. Complaining about what they missed AGAINST your team, only brings in to play what they missed FOR your team. It’s all a wash for the most part.
Fouls are always arguable but goaltending is pretty well defined. I’m not gonna complain about fouls because it was an equally physical game. Difference is we didn’t make our free throws.
2 goaltends and at least 2 blatant fouls with more that were questionable.
His blocks were still insane.
An uncalled basket interference the possession after the uncalled Ant travel too.
Ant was fouled before his travel
The announcers definitely called the 2nd one a goaltend on the replay
one of the few times i agree with Finch on his crusade to talk about refs every game, he had ~2 goaltends and 3 very clear fouls and they just let him because it looked cool
I’m a play off watcher. I watch the NBA in the play offs. Timberwolves are the team that gets the most unfairly reffed and it’s not particularly close. Did something happen to cause this?
Joe Smith 25 years ago
‘Small’ market and while Ant is a star he wasn’t hand selected to be a star by the league before he earned it.
Ant also plays with physicality and he’s built like a linebacker so contact doesn’t move him like it does for other players. Leads to less calls for sure.
Happens to Julius too
Ant’s whistle is a skill issue. Only foul baiting move the guy knows is yelling “aye” and the refs are onto it. The reason stars get the best whistles is because theyre the best foul baiters.
Did Wemby have any missed goaltending calls against Portland?
Shouldn’t the first question really be whether it’s even true or not? Feel like we skip that step way too often before speculating on the conspiracy.
Yeah I gotta be honest, your “qualifications” literally add nothing to the validity of your claim.
You saw one game and they get the worst whistle ever? Lol cmon
Rudy pretty famously got fined for making a money gesture to Scott Foster(?) a couple years ago…
Nice username
The entire games rules have changed to things looking cool, the gather step allows everyone to do cool dribble moves now that were always travels before.
But it looks real cool and supercharges offense.
I don’t get why they can’t change goal tends after the fact like they do with threes or shot clock violations
Because with a 3 the ball goes in and there’s a break in play. Retroactively making it a 2 has no bearing on the play. But for examples sake say Wemby goal tends, ball gets rebounded by the Wolves and they hit a 3. Do you go back and take the 3 away because goal tend came first? Do you count both so you get 5 points? Just gets really messy.
I guess but they do it with shit clock violations too which could also get messy. There should a decent way to solve it like only on balls that end up in a defensive rebound or maybe something better. I just hope the league is looking into it because it would make the game better and lessen the blame refs receive
They could just only count it if the possession ends without a score. If a goaltend occurred during the possession and the possession ultimately ended with zero points scored, add the bucket.
Just give the points for the goaltend and leave it at that. Messy isn’t an excuse to let the block stand and deny 2 points
But for examples sake say Wemby goal tends, ball gets rebounded by the Wolves and they hit a 3. Do you go back and take the 3 away because goal tend came first? Do you count both so you get 5 points? Just gets really messy.
I feel like it’s really not that messy and the alternative of having the ability to have 100% of goaltends be accurate when applicable is better than whatever edge case scenario you want to come up with. Those could probably be addressed pretty easily
I’ve never understood why they can take 10 minutes to review a clear path foul but can’t instantly overturn obvious goaltends
While I agree with everything in this 8 second clip, would prefer a full press statement, with how bad clip culture has become.
Politics involved with that. Finch press conference is his time to riff
https://www.nba.com/watch/video/chris-finch-full-presser-15?plsrc=nba&collection=postgame-media-availability-2025-26
Don’t forget the fouls. He maybe had 7 legitimate blocks out of 12.
Refs were inconsistent with fouls all game. Before the McDaniels foul that was clearly a makeup call, u had a bad Randle call which was an obvious offensive foul, and then the play before that u could tell the refs didn’t wanna give McDaniels the foul they let it go cus he had 4 already so they waited until castle was in the paint to finally call something. Thats like 3 straight calls where it shouldn’t have been on someone else but bc they fucked up they had to call it on someone
Yeah, I needed a replay of that Castle foul on Randle because it made no fucking sense.
And then the immediate makeup call told me all I needed to know about how they blew the first one.
Refs were talking to Castle early in the 3rd quarter about embellishment so I’m guessing it was that, and then they felt it was a little soft so early on the whistle for Jaden
I didn’t realize Castle flopped that much
It’s like some refs have too much pride to get a call wrong and then change it even tho they very much can. Also that one inadvertent whistle that just stopped play stands out to me as well
It was a 5 yard penalty for offensively bad hair
Had friends at after the first quarter saying “I like how the refs are calling it so far”
And being a life long NBA fan I knew that they would just get on their bull shit.
Sure enough, they got on their bull shit.
Its always ever been about consistency, and it never makes sense the way they call these games. Protecting certain players from foul trouble, letting some players play football, calling the most marginal contact on another play. Never makes sense, and feels intentional
That Castle on Randle foul was egregious tbh.
The first half was atrociously in favor of the Spurs. 2 missed goaltends and an obvious missed shooting foul on Randle, among others. Clearly wrong call on backcourt on a poked ball. We had 1 free throw at half despite attacking the paint all 24 minutes. That’s what Finch is upset about. The reffing was bad in the second half but on both teams.
I mean ur only saying that as a wolves fan i think they were atrocious both ways. Letting certain guys get away with stuff on one play and then calling it on the other side and then flip flopping from letting them play in the 1st to calling everything in the 3rd
Agree. It was bad both ways. And I never get to say that bc it’s bad against us like 80% of the time. If they have to suck (and it seems they do) at least suck consistently.
I wasn’t mad at the obvious makeup call on McDaniel’s because the Randle one was pretty bad.
They really need some sort of solution to goaltending. They have the technology to be super accurate with it. I’d be ok with it being treated like a questionable 3-pointer, let a missed call still lead to an easy bucket the other way, but give the points for the missed call.
Yes this completely. A missed goaltend creates a point differential instantly. The ones off the backboard, at the very least, are black and white, and cameras on/around the backboard as they’re already situated should be enough to review without stoppage of play.
The main reason I usually see for it not being implemented like a 2⁄3 point shot is that you can’t rewind the play. That’s why I think a good middle ground is not to worry about rewinding the play, but still reward the missing points. It doesn’t fix the wrong call completely, but it at least makes it partially better.
Edit: I guess the question would still be what happens if the offensive team regains the ball after the missed goaltending. And I guess I don’t have a good solution for that. Except, give them the best overall points they would have had from that possession (be it 2⁄3 from the missed goaltend or whatever points they scored in the possession).
I guess the question would still be what happens if the offensive team regains the ball after the missed goaltending. And I guess I don’t have a good solution for that.
True, but getting more calls correct is still better than the status quo.
Can’t effect the unders/overs if you implement a fool proof strategy.
It’s like refs are just stunned by wemby/glamored by wembys play that they completely forget to check for goal tends
It is ridiculous the number of goaltends he gets away with
He gets away with camping in the paint too. I’m not salty at all 🤣. Dude is an unreal specimen.
Classic Finch
Lowkey though it’s weird that he gets a playoff game record over this. At worst, if two were goaltends it’s a tie record.
That Bones 3 that didn’t count pissed me off so bad. It 100% should have counted. The Wolves got fucked out of so many potential points right there. The reffing was abysmal tonight
Bro thats the call you complain about? Thats not even in the top 5 I had issues with. Bones literally watched the off ball foul happen and then shot. Rudy just missed both so it hurts more.
I don’t think you should be able to foul a big man screener to prevent a wide open 3 from counting, but that’s more an issue with the rules than how the refs enforced it specifically
Should be like soccer and let the advantage go but if he missed the shot call the foul lol
Nah a ton of calls were terrible tonight, they would swallow the whistle on one play and then call a very soft foul the next. I just mentioned the Bones 3 because that could have been a huge momentum boost for Minny
As a neutral, it seemed like you guys were net positive from a reffing standpoint.
I’m not a Minny fan but I agree. Reffing was shit all around. I wish it was more consistent.
I mean they shouldn’t have missed 95 free throws and it wouldn’t have been so close
Talk your shit king
I just knew he was gonna call those out!
he’s gotta say something. keep the refs honest on those plays moving forward.
I called it live on the game thread! I just hope they make a rule change in the offseason that you can review a goaltend, at the very least, in a dead ball situation
Yeah Finch making sparky remarks towards the opponent or refs is a guarantee, even after wins
Why wouldn’t he it puts extra pressure on the officials now
Finch has a legitimate argument though
Dont disagree
lol, to be fair, he did have like 3 goaltends.
Finch is beloved by the players he coaches for a lot of reasons, and this is one of them.
This is Finch telling his guys he’s got their back.
This is also Finch airing out grievances so his players don’t feel like they have to and catch the subsequent fine.
Wemby definitely had some pretty obvious goaltends and fouled the shit out the rim attacker a few times. Im fine with some uncalled contact if its consistent but c’mon at least call the goaltends
I love this sassy bitch. Tell em, Finchy.
He’s not wrong. Glad he’s saying it after a W
Can’t be mad at refs, they called a very solid game. They missed 2 or 3 goaltendings/fouls but none of them were obvious to be honest.
I thought the game overall was solid by the refs. But missing 2 goaltends and 3-4 legit fouls (not ticky tack, actually slaps and arm rakes) just isn’t an advantage the dpoy generational rim protector needs. It just lets him be more aggressive, it’s not a normal missed call
Otherwise I thought the balance of fouls was fine
I agree with you. Fans have lost all sense of how hard this game is to ref. They let them play tonight which imo is advantage Wolves. Not that the Spurs don’t benefit too but I think its the style yall want most.
If you let them play, there’s gunna be some uneveness and yes they probably also missed some calls that are “clear” on replay.
This was a well officiated game and Finch is just trying to get them to overcorrect next game which is his job.
And they probably will.
Officials waffle back and forth between missing on the edge goaltends and taking away good blocks.
Because Wemby can get to balls most players can’t, he’s extremely hard to officiate live.
Yeah, I felt like aside from the goaltends, the reffing was pretty fair. Not perfect, but they definitely butchered some calls benefiting the Wolves.
Yes, they were.
100% Basketball is incredibly difficult to officiate. And ultimately I thought they did a good job tonight.
I personally get OCD about things like goaltends, feet on the line, and other black and white calls that are still left up to human error. But especially goaltends since they create an immediate difference in the score.
Goaltends are annoying because you can’t challenge them if they are not called. I think Wolves would have won 2 challenges if they could use them.
they should just be able to review them, the same way the do to check if it’s a 2 or 3, or if a shot got off before the game/shot clock expires.
Goaltendings and offensive interference should be automatically reviewed during dead ball situations and the points added or subtracted without stopping play. There are leagues who does that, how hard is it to add that in the NBA too.
Just rewatched the highlights and it really was a lot of goaltends and a few fouls but Finch still just sounds so whiny saying this lol
He’s always like this lol
I know, he’s consistent for sure
Of course a Lakers fan has no problem with preferable referee treatment
Easily the player with the best defensive whistle in the league - a good third of his blocks are just outright goaltends
It’s like the refs convince themselves he is physically capable of slightly more than he actually is. I guess the league really wants its golden child
Hes not wrong.
Some gambling addict is collecting petitions this very second for the league to acknowledge those points to cash his over
I really just don’t understand why the NBA just doesn’t leave that up to VAR for that sort of call.
One thing about Finch: he’s always gonna be talking about the refs
What drove me crazy more than anything was how much body contact the first contest from castle/vassell got away with when wemby came in for the secondary contest that led to the easy block
It was kinda surreal to see because usually Wemby has clean blocks that get called as goaltends simply because they look impossible and it felt like they all got cashed in here
Wembanyama’s goaltends are the new Draymond moving screens. Refs let it go because it creates highlights for the league’s cash cow
Let’s see if people like this one as much as they did when Finch was complaining about OKC
The refs call shit inconsistently and terribly all the time, he’s allowed to be upset, this isn’t a gotcha on anyone
You can’t challenge a block to make it a goaltend either, entirely dependent on refs calling it
Blocks record*
Obvious travel by Ant too though
He got fouled on that anyways, his left arm got whacked before his foot even came down
Yeah but minny didnt score on that possession
And the Spurs immediately scored in transition after it too. It actually helped the Spurs somehow
The refs were just really bad at pretty obvious shit, very frustrating the whole way through. I threw my head back in annoyance when ant traveled and was surprised it wasn’t called, same with the goaltends
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/TAmLdvTCGL
Was it not a foul before ant took a step? Wouldn’t that just go in wolves favor if replayed?
Which we did not score from anyways, so it didn’t matter. Those goaltends were 4 obvious points wiped off the board, which would’ve been the difference in the game had Penny hit the buzzer beater. There’s a lot of debate to be had about fouls and whatnot and how they “might” impact the game, but goaltending is just straight points missed.
2 steps is legal. You wouldn’t say it’s a travel if he shot a layup after.
Followed immediately by basket interference on the opposite end.
True but Wolves didn’t score then. Wouldn’t mind being more strict on Castle’s ball carries if we’re at it.
You mean when he got hit across the arm prior the travel? lol
Ball didn’t lie so it’s all good
fuck it, just make goaltending legal for everyone. it will be funny.
We’re going back to George Mikan style
Was wondering when we were going to finally stop blindly meat riding and start talking about some of his blocks being clear goaltending. It goes ignored for what? Benefit of the doubt on blocks now? Come on
His first “block” of the game (11:30 left in the 1st) was such an obvious goaltend it’s actually comical how bad it looks in .25x speed. It wasn’t even pinned to the glass, it was already falling off the backboard and into the rim when Wemby smacked it lol
Theyll give you some IOUs in return Finch
Finch always the favorite coach of all NBA fans except two teams (us and whomever were playing that night).
On the side note. Chris Finch lucked out on Ragu and Ant getting injured it forced him to play other players now they are reaping the rewards of fresh legs.
They really caudle him like he’s a toddler out there
As petty as this comment is, Finch isn’t wrong. Just as how certain perimeter defenders can get away with fouls because they have a defensive reputation, Wemby gets the equivalent for goal tending.
What if the NBA does a L2M like analysis but for the entire game instead of just 2 mins for the playoffs. All wrong calls accounted and balanced out and the net pts missed are added to the team the next game. The only thing is it won’t work for the last game but we’ll just have to live with that
They do it internally, they just don’t release it.
Finch vs Wemby, this is breaking this sub’s heart
Finch genuinely pisses me off with is constant bitching and complaining even when he has a point
Hater Finch gtfoh
I don’t think there’s goaltend tech or stronger review protocols because we never expected a 7’ 4” alien to go after blocks like this
When’s the last prolific shot blocker? Hassan Whiteside?
It will only really affect Wemby, as it’s not widespread, so I don’t know if the league will put in capital to develop it and flesh it out
Although I imagine the tech is already there, it would just need the apex of the shot and point of contact right?
In-game backboard camera reviews seem like a no-brainer that can be looked at without stoppage of play.
And for the other brand of goaltending, I’m sure there are feasible solutions to indicate trajectory, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to continue to leave those cases to judgement calls.
There was at least 1 foul and 1 goaltend in there, probably more.
But if you want to argue about those - I would like the point to every single possession where Randle or Reid were fouling him in the paint - on both offense and defense. People complain about him not getting shots up, but its a bit hard if you can never get your hands free.
And its not an excuse, because the Spurs need to find some counters (primarily using more PnR’s, both as screener and playmaker, and taking more advantage when Fox and Harper, in particular, were able to get in the lane and drag the defence with them).
Look he is a complete crybaby when it comes to refs but he’s lowkey earned it so far this offseason so I’ll allow it
When us random redditors say ref bad everyone agrees. When coach and players say ref bad, suddenly ref not bad?
There’s a difference between fans complaining and Players and Coaches.
I mean if the truth is objective why does the speaker matter?
The biggest crybabies are on Okc
Broken clock is right twice a day.