Wolves say Victor Wembanyama goaltending calls being missed - ESPN

SAN ANTONIO — Spurs center Victor Wembanyama set an NBA playoff record with 12 blocks in Monday night's Game 1 loss, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are adamant that one-third of them shouldn't have counted.

«At least four of them were goaltending,» Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. «Maybe even a fifth. To me, it's a little alarming that none of them were called.»

The Timberwolves were still glowing in the aftermath of their stunning 104-102 series-opening road win after Tuesday morning's film session, but Finch, perhaps delivering a subtle nudge to the NBA and its officials in the upcoming games against Wembanyama, pivoted the first question of his press scrum toward the perceived goaltending.

«Here's a generational shot blocker, who is 7-foot-6 and goes after everything, and there's no heightened awareness that these blocks could be a goaltend?» Finch asked. «The third possession of the game was a goaltend, and it was a clean obvious one.»

While the score was still 0-0, Wembanyama swatted a Terrence Shannon Jr. transition drive, but replays show that Shannon's layup attempt quite clearly hit the backboard before Wembanyama contacted it, which should've resulted in a goaltending call.

The other handful of non-goaltend calls that angered the Timberwolves were more borderline, including a second-quarter swat of a Naz Reid hook that might've been on the way down and a first-quarter block of Rudy Gobert that, at minimum, appeared to be a foul.

«Let's just say there were four [goaltends],» Finch said. «That's eight points. You know the value of eight points in an NBA game? It's massive. That means 33% of his blocks were goaltending uncalled. If I were to give you a 33% raise, you'd like that, right? It's a huge number.»

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