A couple of weeks ago, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said that the physicality in the NBA playoffs had “gone way too far” and “disrupted the flow.” On Wednesday, a day after the Timberwolves’ 99-88 loss in the first game of their second-round series against the Golden State Warriors, Finch got more specific.
“On defensive rebounding, [the Warriors] do a lot of fouling, holding, shoving, pushing and tackling Rudy [Gobert],” Finch told reporters. “That’s clear. We sent a bunch of those clips in to the league. In fact, I’m not sure I know another player in the league with Rudy’s pedigree that is allowed to be physically beaten on the way he is. And so we gotta address that one way or another.”
Asked if Gobert needs to push opponents around the same way, Finch said: “He did push — I mean, there was a play last night where [Brandin] Podziemski clearly grabs him and then he sheds Podziemski and then he gets the foul. So I mean we’ll certainly try to take justice into our own hands whenever we can. I think that’s the nature of physical sport. But by the same token, you know, my God, you should see some of these clips. They look like pulling guards and linemen out there, just taking shots at Rudy.”
In response, Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters, “I didn’t see a single foul on any of those plays.” After some laughter, he made it clear that he wouldn’t argue with Finch: “No, yeah, there’s a lot of physicality in the lane, for sure, and they definitely could have called a couple of those.”
Kerr and the Warriors, though, have their own issues with the physicality. This is a league-wide issue.
“I was upset the first 10 minutes of [Game 1],” Kerr said. “It was just like Houston all over again. They were bear-hugging Steph [Curry], and they could have called six fouls. But the league has established the physicality in the playoffs.”
During the playoffs, officials have been “consistently allowing teams to foul,” he said.
“To me, it’s crazy out there, what’s happening,” Kerr said. “Everybody’s fouling each other. I just feel like they have a really hard job because playoff basketball is — yes, it’s physical and they’re going to allow more, but I think they could have called a foul six, seven straight possessions with them guarding Steph. So I got my complaints, too. Trust me. We all do. And this is how it works in the playoffs. We watch the tape, we see all the fouls on them that aren’t called. They watch the tape, they see all the ones on us that weren’t called. It’s a physical game. It’s just going to be. And both teams have to adjust. I’m getting ready to send my own clips in to the league.”
Kerr had a smile on his face when he dropped the line about sending clips to the league, so he may not have been completely serious about that part. He would, however, like to see an effort made to clean the games up.
“I mean, Jimmy [Butler] is posting up Donte [DiVincenzo, and] Donte’s fouling the crap out of Jimmy — he’s just knocking him,” Kerr said. “And these are fouls. But again: Can you call every one of them? No. But can you set a tone early and try to clean it up? Yes, I think that’s the idea.”
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Repeatedly, Kerr acknowledged that officials have a difficult job. This is particularly true when teams are effectively using officials’ reluctance to call an extreme amount of fouls every game as a strategic advantage.
“It’s a really hard thing to control,” Kerr said, “because everybody’s playing so hard and they know what the other team is running and if you call every foul — I mean, Ime [Udoka] said it in our Houston series: Just keep fouling ’em, they can’t call ’em all. And that’s the old Pat Riley, Chuck Daly formula from the late 80s, early 90s: Just foul ’em every time, the refs can’t call it. So this is playoff basketball.”
For eight playoff games, Curry “hasn’t had any freedom of movement,” Kerr said. “They’ve called maybe four or five calls in eight games, and we’re watching on tape: They’re literally bear-hugging Steph. That’s a foul. But they’re allowing it.”
Coaches like Kerr and Finch may be opposed to how the games are being officiated, but if the opponent is being physical, they have no choice but to tell their players to try to match that physicality.
“I’m sure Chris’ complaints are warranted, just like mine are,” Kerr said. “Both teams are going to have a lot to complain about at the end of every playoff game. I don’t know what the solution is, other than what I just said: Can you call stuff early to set a tone and try to get both teams to understand where the line is? And that’s the best that the officials can do because, like I said, you call every foul, it’s a parade to the foul line, nobody wants to watch that, either. So they have a very difficult job.”
