Finch shares his thoughts after the team's five-game winning streak ends in a home loss to the Phoenix Suns.
The Minnesota Timberwolves came into Monday night's matchup riding a five-game winning streak, but the Phoenix Suns put an end to that run with a 108-105 victory at Target Center.
Despite a monster 40-point performance from Anthony Edwards, the rest of the Timberwolves couldn't find their stroke, and head coach Chris Finch was left searching for answers after the game.
Finch Points to Shooting Woes
The Timberwolves (15-9) had every opportunity to beat a Suns team (14-10) that was missing injured star Devin Booker, but their shooting let them down in a game that came right down to the wire.
The supporting cast around Edwards and Julius Randle simply could not get anything to fall, and Finch knows the team needs more if they want to keep winning.
"We've got to shoot the ball better," Finch said postgame. "I thought a lot of them were decent looks."
The numbers back up what Finch saw on the floor. Jaden McDaniels, Donte DiVincenzo, Naz Reid and Mike Conley combined to shoot just 4-for-31 from the field, and both Reid and McDaniels missed potential game-tying three-pointers in the final minute.
Edwards was brilliant and Randle chipped in 21 points, but everyone else in the rotation shot a combined 33 percent, which simply was not enough to get the job done.
Gobert Ejection Hurts Wolves
The game took a major turn in the third quarter when Rudy Gobert was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul after elbowing Mark Williams in the ribs.
Up to that point, Gobert was having one of his best offensive games of the season and had tallied 15 points and eight rebounds before the ejection.
Losing the four-time Defensive Player of the Year forced the Timberwolves to adjust on the fly and it clearly hurt them on both ends of the floor.
Bones Hyland Provides a Spark
There was one positive development to come out of the loss.
Bones Hyland got his first real rotation action of the season and made the most of it, leading the Wolves' bench with 14 points and three assists in 16 minutes while shooting 4-for-6 from three-point range.
"We were 24 games in and I thought it was time to try something different," Finch said about inserting Hyland into the rotation. "He's been patient, doing really well in practice, doing everything we asked him to do."
The Timberwolves now head to San Francisco for a quick road trip to take on the Golden State Warriors on Friday, where they will look to get back in the win column and put this disappointing loss behind them.