En route to the locker room following Minnesota’s dramatic 110-108 overtime win over Houston on Wednesday, at least one Timberwolves player reportedly could be heard saying, “That (stuff) didn’t work, Scott Foster.”
Foster was the crew chief of the officiating crew for a Wolves-Rockets tilt at Target Center that featured its share of officiating controversy, i.e. calls that were and were not made. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said his players “were certainly frustrated,” adding the overtime affair “should’ve ended at regulation.”
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Finch said Julius Randle “clearly” was fouled on his gather during his move to the bucket in the closing seconds of the knotted contest. The coach noted Minnesota attempted 63 shots in the paint, yet received only 10 free-throw attempts to Houston’s 25.
The Rockets, meanwhile, received key whistles in the final five seconds of both regulation and overtime that afforded them the opportunity to tie the game at the free-throw line. However, Kevin Durant missed the first attempt of a trip to the stripe with three seconds to play in the extra session, with the Rockets trailing by two.
Finch said he has “never seen” a call like the flagrant whistled on Randle for running through a screener with three minutes to play in regulation.
“They said he sought him out to run him over,” Finch said. “I’ve never seen a flagrant like that. He goes through a screen, they call a foul, fine. That’s clearly a foul. Play on. But a flagrant? I don’t know.”
The call opened the door for a four-point Rockets possession that helped Houston lower its deficit from nine to five.
“Randle was deemed to have run through the screen with force, making no attempt to avoid the contact, which was deemed unnecessary,” Foster said in a postgame interview with a pool reporter.
In overtime, Minnesota challenged an offensive foul call against Naz Reid in which Alperen Sengun appeared to still be moving laterally when Reid connected with him, with Reid’s foot also landing on that of the Rockets’ center.
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Yet the call stood on the floor, which didn’t surprise Finch. “That one was close … I didn’t think we were going to win it,” he said. But immediately after the replay ruling, the ESPN broadcast appeared to show Reid simply saying “he was moving” in regards to Sengun, which induced a quick technical foul call from Foster, which resulted in an ejection.
Foster said Reid “made a statement that questioned the integrity of the crew.”
It wasn’t Foster’s first controversial encounter with the Timberwolves this season. The referee also ejected Anthony Edwards in overtime of Minnesota’s Christmas night loss to Denver.
Yet Finch and the Wolves players were proud of how any gripes with the whistle didn’t affect the team’s approach on the floor. They continued to attack the rack on offense while playing a physical brand of defense.
“Just try to believe in the basketball gods,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “Just keep trying to compete, play winning basketball and control what you can control.”
“Just not worry about the refs, just going to play,” Jaden McDaniels said. “You see, we weren’t worried about them in overtime and came back and won.”
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