“They were taking it to us and we had to change that around,” Finch said. “Good response. And I did like the mental toughness that went with it tonight. … We came alive after the altercation. We also came alive because we were down. We were getting our butt kicked."
Facing an admirable Pistons team missing two of its best players, the Wolves snoozed through much of the first half as Edwards displayed the outward passion of a bored librarian.
Instead, a strong second half, and superlative performances from Gobert (19 points, 25 rebounds) and Mike Conley (17 points and a plus-24 while limiting Pistons scorer Malik Beasley in the second half) left the Wolves a half-game out of the sixth seed in the Western Conference.
“I thought we were fighting the game,” Finch said of his team in the first half. “Once we figured out what we needed to do, I thought our guys were really good.”
Former Wolves coach Flip Saunders used to talk about “popcorn players” — those who shined when they could smell the popcorn in a full arena, even if they didn’t perform well in practice.
For most of this season, the Wolves, when uninspired by their foe, have been unpopped kernels.