{"id":536984,"date":"2026-01-14T22:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/536984\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T22:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:40:14","slug":"wolves-depth-shines-against-bucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/536984\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolves depth shines against Bucks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch<\/a> beamed about his basketball team after it blew out the Bucks<\/a> on Tuesday in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally proud,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was fun to watch us play.\u201d<\/p>\n

On both ends of the floor.<\/p>\n

Defensively, Minnesota forced 19 turnovers \u2014 seven of which came from Giannis Antetokounmpo. Offensively, the Wolves shot 60% from the field, while making 22 triples and tallying a season-high 37 assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper sharp all over the place,\u201d Finch said. \u201cGameplan was executed at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was done without Minnesota\u2019s two highest-paid players in Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert.<\/p>\n

Midway through the campaign, Edwards is in prime position to earn his first first-team All-NBA honor this season and finish in the top five in MVP voting. Gobert is one of the front-runners to win Defensive Player of the Year. Much of the team\u2019s offensive success is credited to the guard, while the defense\u2019s achievements are often attributed to the center.<\/p>\n

Yet, when Finch was asked if Minnesota perhaps played with a heightened awareness Tuesday because it was down two of its top guys, the coach also noted, \u201cthis is a lot of accomplished guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added to that sentiment Wednesday during his appearance with Paul Allen<\/a> on KFXN-FM100.3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our guys were amped up and ready to play. I think they wanted to prove what they could do down a couple guys,\u201d Finch told Allen. \u201cA lot of guys knew they were going to be asked to do more \u2026 and they were ready for it, because they\u2019re (dang) good players themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reality is eight of the nine players in Minnesota\u2019s current rotation have scored 20-plus points in a playoff game.<\/p>\n

Jaden McDaniels is a second-team, All-Defensive team forward who could drop 30 points at a moment\u2019s notice. Naz Reid could win his second NBA Sixth Man of the Year honor this season. Donte DiVincenzo was a focal point of a Knicks team that went to a Game 7 of the second round of the playoffs two seasons ago. Julius Randle is a two-time, All-NBA player.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not including first-round pick Joan Beringer, who shined via his energy in the first extended minutes of his rookie campaign, finishing with 13 points and five rebounds, or Bones Hyland, who\u2019s solidifying his reserve guard role in the Wolves\u2019 rotation and made five 3-pointers against the Bucks.<\/p>\n

Randle had 29 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the win. McDaniels had 14 points and three assists in the first quarter alone.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s talent up and down the lineup. The Timberwolves are far more than a two- or three-man band.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really fricken\u2019 good,\u201d DiVincenzo said last week, \u201cand we have a really good roster.\u201d<\/p>\n

That much is clear, but even the obvious can get murky amid an 82-game season. Fits in regards to role and skillset are questioned on every roster and trade ideas are drummed up for solutions to problems that may not even necessarily exist.<\/p>\n

Maybe the Wolves are deficient in certain areas. Who isn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

None of the team\u2019s issues are due to a void in talent. That was on full display again in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought incredible pace to the game. Julius played outstanding at the point forward position, but everyone got out and ran,\u201d Finch told Allen. \u201cWe played with great pace. \u2026 That\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned about us \u2014 the faster we get up and down in transition, the more it quickens our decision making. And our next action and the ball movement follows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re moving the ball like that and you have a bunch of really skilled players out there who can all do their own thing, everybody is going to get good looks at it, and that\u2019s what happened. We made the extra pass and it was not a lot of iso basketball. We played away from the crowd and just take the simple play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ability takes over from there, no matter whose hands are holding the ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Timberwolves coach Chris Finch beamed about his basketball team after it blew out the Bucks on Tuesday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[375,7,2026,377,376,307,152,3954,6,373,66,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-536984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chris-finch","11":"tag-jaden-mcdaniels","12":"tag-julius-randle","13":"tag-minnesota","14":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","15":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-rudy-gobert","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115895862880355993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}