Chris Finch Calls Jamal Murray's Free Throw Total a 'Head-Scratcher'

In their 116-105 loss to the Nuggets in Game 1 on Saturday, the Timberwolves shot 19 free throws as a team, with seven of those coming from Anthony Edwards.

Jamal Murray shot 16 free throws by himself. He made all 16, and the Nuggets collectively went 30 of 33 (91 percent) at the charity stripe. Wolves head coach Chris Finch wasn't thrilled by that disparity.

"The 16 free throws for Murray is a head-scratcher," Finch said after the game.

Murray's first three free throws were the result of a questionable call and review decision when he jumped forward and landed on Jaden McDaniels' foot on an early three-point shot. He then shot and made eight free throws in the second quarter and four more in the third (though one was the result of a technical foul on McDaniels).

Murray finished with a game-high 30 points despite going 7 of 22 from the floor and missing all eight of his three-point attempts. The fact that Murray shot 16 free throws doesn't inherently mean the calls were incorrect, but Finch certainly wasn't pleased with some of the whistles.

"I thought we played really good defense on him," Finch said. "A lot of those ones in the second quarter, we were there, we were physical, we were vertical. He initiates the contact, he spills away, and then he gets rewarded for it. (Nikola) Jokic does the same thing. We gotta be solid around that. But 16 free throws is a lot. It's almost as many as we shot all game."

Jamal Murray | Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Nuggets head coach David Adelman had a different assessment. "He drew a lot of fouls in that quarter because he got fouled," Adelman said. "A lot."

"I thought I got fouled on every single one of them," Murray said. "I don't know what everybody's talking about. It's real fouls."

The participants are obviously biased, and anyone wanting to make a true assessment of the situation should watch every foul Murray drew and decide for themselves. Some of them were obvious calls. Others arguably were on the softer side, especially for the postseason.

Jamal Murray's 16 FTA was a hot topic in post-game pressers after G1 in Denver.

Chris Finch referred to them as a "head-scratcher" when asked about what the Wolves needed to do defensively.

Here are all of the fouls the Wolves committed on Murray that led to those free throws. pic.twitter.com/LdkxlstY2G
— Jonah (@Huncho_Jman) April 19, 2026

Finch and plenty of Timberwolves fans were frustrated with the officiating on Saturday. Still, there were numerous other reasons why the Wolves couldn't pull off the upset in a winnable game. Edwards, Julius Randle, and McDaniels combined to shoot 41 percent from the field and made only two of their 16 threes. The Wolves fell apart in the third quarter and had some poorly-timed turnovers and second-chance points allowed down the stretch.

"It's a lot of composure issues," Finch said. "We gotta make smarter, more solid plays. ... We gotta be more composed."

Minnesota led by 10 points after the first quarter but lost the second by 10 and lost the third quarter by 12. In that third quarter, when the Wolves scored only 17 points, their ball movement went missing and their shot selection wasn't great.

"Everyone was trying to trying to get themselves going a little bit there," Finch said. "The ball didn't move, played a lot of shell offense, a lot of guys stuck on the perimeter. Not punching any gaps, no movement. I thought we had really good ball movement in the first half, too, and it just kind of dried up. And it really cost us, because it led to a lot of easy baskets for them."

Game 2 is Monday night at 9:30 p.m. central.

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