When it mattered most in game one, the Nuggets were able to ramp it up and pull away from the Timberwolves for a fairly decisive victory in a game that mostly felt close. The Wolves have a lot of areas they can point to that need improvement, but after the game, their head coach, Chris Finch, chose to single out the officials in his press conference.
Finch was asked what else he needs defensively against this great Nuggets offense and deadpanned, "The 16 free throws from [Jamal] Murray is a head scratcher”, as he shrugged his shoulders, looking exasperated.
The Nuggets got to the free-throw line 33 times in game one, knocking down 30 of those attempts, while the Timberwolves connected on just 14 of 19 from the charity stripe. That number was especially jarring for Murray, who shot 16-16 from the line, despite averaging just 5.2 attempts per game this season and 3.2 for his career.
There were a couple of questionable calls, and perhaps Murray was baiting on one or two, but for the most part, this was an extremely physical game, and Jamal got fouled a lot. Finch is upset that his team came up short, and is using a classic media tactic to try to shift the narrative and intimidate the league and refs into changing some calls going forward.
Finch’s tactics aren’t going to matter
The thing is, while Murray’s free throws were a bit of an outlier in game one, the overall discrepancy wasn’t. The Wolves are one of the foul-happiest teams in the league, and sent opponents to the line the fifth-most of anyone. At the same time, the Nuggets lived on the line, attempting the fourth-most free throws in the league.
It makes sense. Denver has a beautiful offense predicated on great ball movement by elite passers. They are almost impossible to guard without fouling. The Wolves have a big, physical defense, and they get into gusy aggressively, which leads to a lot of fouls.
Going forward, there may not be a double-digit difference in attempts, and Murray probably won’t shoot 16 by himself again, but Jokic only shot one, which will probably be his floor by a significant margin.
Murray isn’t likely to shoot 7-22 from the field again, or 0-8 from three-point range either. Every playoff game is its own unique battle, and there are always going to be some outliers. Ultimately, those aren’t going to be consistent from game to game, but that doesn’t matter. The Nuggets got this critical win, and they did it with Jamal shooting a bunch of free throws.
Now, they have to find ways to win three other games. Maybe they’ll involve free throws, maybe they won’t. As long as they get the job done, nobody is going to care. Nor should they.
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