ESPN’s Brian Windhorst’s Biggest Spurs-Timberwolves Takeaways

Brian Windhorst opened his Tuesday hit with Rich on a single image.

A New York taxi trying to reach LaGuardia during the U.N. General Assembly.

The analogy was for what Minnesota's offense looked like every time Victor Wembanyama was inside the paint in Game 1 of the Spurs-Wolves series. Wembanyama blocked twelve shots. The Wolves kept finding the next route.

"They would drive here. He's in the way. They would come over this way. Nope. He's in the way," Windhorst said. "Let's keep going up. He blocks our shot. Nope. They never let down."

Windhorst did the math after the game. Of Wembanyama's twelve blocks, San Antonio retained five for kept possessions. Two became fouls. One became free throws. Two became baskets, including a Mike Conley three in the fourth quarter. Total scoreboard impact off the blocks: six points.

The Wolves won by two.

"That to me, even though there's a lot of other stuff going on, illustrates the approach you have to have against a player like this," Windhorst said. "Whether they can keep that mental edge when he does it to you for two straight weeks, I don't know."

Wembanyama joined Hakeem Olajuwon and Andrew Bynum as the only players in NBA playoff history with a triple-double involving blocks. He had eight blocks in the first half alone. He still left the game on the losing end of a 104-102 final.

Windhorst's other read of the night was on Chris Finch. The Wolves coach went out of his way after the game to mention that some of Wembanyama's blocks were goaltends, in Finch's view. Windhorst saw the move for what it was.

"I just love the way coaches work refs from like straight out of the Phil Jackson playbook," he said. "Just drop a little breadcrumb here or there from the podium."

He pulled the receipts. In the previous round, after one of the early games against Denver, Finch complained about officiating on a specific call. Whatever happened next, Windhorst said, the calls in the following game looked different. He invoked Rick Carlisle as the modern master of the practice. Two years ago, Carlisle stayed up most of the night after Game 2 of a Pacers-Knicks second-round series and personally produced a 47-clip package for the league office. The Pacers came back to win in seven.

Finch, Windhorst said, may be running the same play.

The point of the segment was not the blocks. It was the discipline of an offense that did not let Wembanyama break it, and a head coach who knows that podium time is part of the job.