The NBA head coach job is tough enough and exposed to criticism not to give the stick to be beaten. After Wolves lost at home in game 3 to the Memphis Grizzlies, chris vink stands in the eye of the storm. It is clearly not him who is lying on the ground. But his passivity in a game in which his side was up to 26 points has stunned Wolves fans and neutral observers alike.
All teams experience negative runs in a game, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. To stop the bleeding, the coaches resort to timeouts to break the opponent’s dynamics and re-mobilize their troops. The extent of damage required to use a time out will of course depend on each coach, some want their players to find solutions on their own for as long as possible, even if it means taking a splinter, others giving prefer to break the spiral very quickly. Chris Finch went a little too far with the concept of patience.
The successor to Ryan Saunders has done a very good job this season, that has to be recognised. However, it is impossible to defend him as he does not time out on the 21-0 run (then 24-2) suffered by his players in the last minute of the 3rd quarter and a foul by Naz Reid to .. 6:44 from the end of the game. Finch waited for Memphis to take the lead to rally his players and offer them reprieve and solutions. They will never find these solutions, as the Grizzlies have mastered the money time to win by 9 points ahead, which seems crazy when we’ve been following the whole game and the dynamic that seemed to have settled down.
Charles Barkley, on set to analyze the match on TNTwas outraged at what he saw.
“I don’t believe stupid kids are stupid. They just have stupid parents. There wolves are stupid because their coaches are stupid. At 21-0 even my newborn grandson would have been dead for a while.
They are one of the teams with the most talent, but they are dumb as their feet. If they have to think, they can’t. I’m frustrated with this team because if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s stupidity on the pitch. You can lose a game, but not like this.
We can’t even say they “choked” because they lost by 10 points. It was just embarrassing for basketball.”
Oh dear…
CQFR: GS hits target, Dallas shines without Doncic, Wolves liquid
