Chris Finch said Anthony Edwards is trending positively ahead of Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, but the Timberwolves still do not know exactly what his return would look like. “Obviously it would be a huge shot in the arm to get him back. He’s moving in the right direction, but we still don’t know what that really looks like.”
Edwards has remained around the team, and Finch said that matters as Minnesota resets for a new opponent. “It’s been good to have him just around the team again, have his energy back, and he’s paying close attention to the game plan and everything like that. He’s locking in.”
Finch spent much of the interview stressing that San Antonio presents a different challenge than Denver, especially with pace, spacing and transition threes. “For me it always starts with winning the point of attack, containing penetration, being really good on the ball,” Finch said, adding that “this is a series where we’re going to have to be good in rotation.”
He said the Timberwolves have to stay sharp because the Spurs can punish even small mistakes. “They get a lot in transition. They shoot a lot of threes in transition. Being able to get back and cover ground, and sometimes you just got to make a miss. You just got to get out there and make a miss.”
With less time between rounds, Finch said the preparation has become more opponent-specific. “When you have a shorter period of time, it’s almost all dedicated to your opponent,” he said, though the process stays the same with “the way we break it down, the way we feed it into player development, the different film themes every day.”
Finch also said Minnesota has reset mentally after an emotional first-round win. “I feel like we’ve done a good job of getting back to zero,” he said. “We wipe the slate clean. Got a fresh new approach.”
The bigger picture, Finch said, remains unchanged. “Our goal isn’t to beat San Antonio. Our goal is to win a championship. We’ve only taken one of the four steps that we need to do that.”
He ended by pointing to the details that separate playoff games and playoff series. “Staying on that even keel is one thing that you need to learn,” Finch said. “Managing close games, maximizing the small pieces of the game like winning all those margins, I think is huge.”
