No composure – Wolves coach Chris Finch after Game 1 loss against Dallas Mavericks

When Minnesota Timberwolves coach Chris Finch was asked to describe his team’s Game 1’s 108-105 Western Conference finals loss to Dallas Mavericks, he said there was no composure at the fag end.

The Wolves conceded five of their 10 turnovers in the final quarter, which led to their downfall. The Mavericks took the advantage as they out-scored them by 10-3 in the last three minutes of the game.

“We haven’t really closed quarters very well, closed halves very well over the last handful of games,” Finch continued. “It cost us a game in the Denver series. It certainly had an impact on this game tonight, too. We’ve got to be better in clutch moments.”

Jaden McDaniels admitted they need to come up with a better performance and fine-tune the small things.

“I think we just got to do the small things a little better,” said McDaniels, who finished with a team-high 24 points on 9-for-15 shooting. “They had a couple offensive rebounds at the end and they turned into points. So it’s the little things, for real.”

Mike Conley Jr. added they haven’t been caught off guard like this and they will need to lift their game.

“I think we haven’t been tested like this where we’ve had to trade basket to basket, late-game free throw situations or fouling situations, stuff that we have to be better at,” Conley said. “But we’ll learn from it. I think each game we’ve learned a lot about ourselves, a lot we can get better at. Obviously, it’s going to be a long series, regardless of what happened tonight.”

For the Dallas Mavericks, their talisman Luka Doncic was at his absolute best, top-scoring with 33 on 12-26 shooting.

The second game of the series will be played on Friday.