What Chris Finch said about Wolves' loss to Lakers, defense on final shot

"It's on me," Finch said of Minnesota's defense there. "I should've had Rudy just switch. We got split in coverage and we should've just blacked it and just switched it and kept everybody in front."

That answer makes it sound like Gobert was doing what he was coached to do, so it wasn't necessarily his fault that he allowed the split. Finch expanded on his thoughts on Thursday morning in an interview with KFAN's Paul Allen.

"In those situations, we've been really good when we just kind of switch everything, keep everything in front, and, yesterday we kind of stayed in what you call coverage," he said. "And the most important thing, whether you decide to do A or B or C, is that you have great clarity on what you're doing. And I think maybe there was a little indecision on what we were gonna do there. So, totally on me in that moment in time.

"We had our two best defenders in the action. (Reaves) split them, which was a great play by him, and he's got that deadly in-between game. ... We challenged it hard, but ideally at that point in time you don't want to be split. You want to keep everything in front, make him make a similar shot over Rudy rather than over a smaller defender in the paint."

Continued defensive issues

The Wolves found themselves in a 20-point hole in the third quarter largely because they continue to struggle on the defensive end of the floor. A team that was No. 1 defensive rating two years ago and No. 6 last year allowed 97 points through three quarters and ranks 25th in defensive rating so far.

"It's something we've been good at," he told Allen. "We've had a couple of the worst defensive performances in my time here. Can't quite put my finger on exactly why. I think it's a collection of reasons, but we've gotta get back to have more of a defensive personality."

Finch said he thought McDaniels did a good job against Reaves, who had 28 points and 16 assists but was just 9 of 24 from the field. After allowing 30-35 points in each of the first three quarters, the Wolves held the Lakers to 19 points in the fourth, but they can't wait until the final quarter to raise their level of defensive intensity.

"That's being more like we need to be," Finch said of their fourth-quarter defense. "We just can't wait until the fourth quarter to do it. We got more physical, we got into the ball. I thought (Jake) LaRavia and (Dalton) Knecht had comfortable games, they were able to get to their spots easily. We just kind of got a little bit more aggressive. I think we've been playing tentative defensively, like we're afraid to foul. We have had fouling issues, so I don't know if guys are kind of trying not to foul, but there's a right type of physicality and a way to play without fouling and we haven't found that balance yet."

"Just gotta have more resistance in everything that we do right now," he said postgame.

Other comments

On Rob Dillingham, who had 8 points and 5 assists in 16 minutes:

"When he keeps it simple and makes the early pass and kind of goes somewhere, he's got such quickness, he get some places and then find his teammates. Thought he did a good job of finding Naz, I like that partnership that's growing a little bit. Second half, just maybe dribbled into tight spaces a little bit, but he did finish well when he got in and around the basket a few times."

On one underrated thing the Wolves miss without Anthony Edwards:

"We miss a little bit of personality, a little bit of swagger without Anthony. He's got so much of it. He gives us confidence, he infuses his teammates with the same type of energy. We gotta find a little bit more of a personality without him. We have a lot of quiet guys and they're all kind of serious quiet guys, but we gotta play a little bit more emotion, and that'll kind of fuel us through some tougher times."

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