LaMelo Ball fouls out in 20 minutes at San Antonio, and Chris Finch says ‘I thought we got rid of that stuff in the ’80s’

LaMelo Ball played 20 minutes in San Antonio on Saturday night. He picked up two fouls in the game’s first 3:15, a fourth with 7:40 left in the first half and a fifth 1:54 into the third quarter. With the Minnesota Timberwolves down 113-105 and 3:43 to play, an offensive foul ended his night. It was his third turnover in less than two and a half minutes, and the Spurs went on to win 121-111.

After the game Chris Finch did not hide what he thought of the whistle. “They’re fouling him all over the floor,” the Timberwolves coach said. “They got their hands on him, they’re bumping him, they’re holding him, they’re riding him off his line, and at the other end of the floor he’s being whistled for a bunch of touch fouls. The way that they allow people to just put their hands on him over the full court, I thought we got rid of that stuff in the ’80s, but apparently not.”

Chris Finch on LaMelo Ball getting into foul trouble:

"They're fouling him all over the floor. They got their hands on him, they're bumping him, they're holding him, they're riding him off his line. At the other end of the floor he's being whistled for a bunch of touch fouls.… https://t.co/gJ5P5E16ED pic.twitter.com/48A9tSO7iW

— Oh No He Didn't 🤯 (@ohnohedidnt24) November 1, 2026

Five games in seven nights, and no Edwards or Gobert

Minnesota is 4-3. It opened with three straight wins, lost in overtime at Cleveland, and has gone 1-2 since Anthony Edwards was ruled out with the right knee injury that led to a cleanup procedure on Thursday. Saturday was the second night of a back-to-back and the Wolves’ fifth game in seven nights, and Rudy Gobert, listed as questionable with a sore back, did not play. More on Edwards’ procedure is in our story from Wednesday.

Even so, Minnesota led 61-60 at halftime after a 21-5 run in the second quarter and was still within four midway through the fourth. Ayo Dosunmu, starting in Edwards’ place, scored 27 on 11-of-17 shooting with nine rebounds. Jonathan Kuminga and Jaden McDaniels added 19 each, but the Wolves went 9 of 33 from three.

“Great fight, you know, down a bunch of guys,” Finch said. “But we had chances. We had to be smarter. We didn’t like our decision-making, our careless turnovers in the fourth quarter, particularly.”

Ball: ‘You think I had six?’

Ball has been in foul trouble all season. He has been called for 30 fouls in seven games, at least four in six of them, and has not played more than 31 minutes in any game. Finch said the turnovers were on Ball (“he’s got to figure it out, right? I mean, the turnovers are unnecessary”), but the fouls were a different matter. He went through Saturday’s one by one: an offensive foul, a rebounding foul, “marginal contact” on a baseline out-of-bounds play and on a transition layup.

Ball answered the first question about it with one of his own. “You’ve seen all the fouls I had? You think I had six? I would probably say no,” he said. “Honestly, I wasn’t even trying to foul, and it was just happening.” He also took his share: “Just got to be smarter, though.” He finished with 10 points on 2-of-10 shooting, eight rebounds, four assists, three steals and five turnovers, and Minnesota was outscored by nine with him on the floor.

LaMelo Ball’s post game interview:

“You seen all the fouls I had? You think I had 6?…I mean just gotta be smarter though” pic.twitter.com/uJ8gfubjTE

— Kyle Ingram (@SnapshotKyle) November 1, 2026

Kuminga spoke in a similar way about the whole night. “I think we brought the physicality,” he said. “Obviously we got called for a lot of fouls, you know, some of them were fouls, some of them wasn’t.” San Antonio went 25 of 31 from the line, Minnesota 22 of 26.

Beringer’s 34 minutes against Wembanyama

With Gobert out, Joan Beringer, the second-year center, started and played 34 minutes, 14 more than in any other game this season. His job was Victor Wembanyama, who scored a season-high 43 on 17-of-34 shooting with seven rebounds and six blocks. Beringer had 12 points, six rebounds (five offensive) and five fouls and was blunt about it. “It was tough for me, but I just have to be better, honestly,” he said. Asked what bothered him most, he said: “The things that I couldn’t really stop Wembanyama. He’s just like so long, he’s so tall, he’s just something else.”

Finch had already argued that point with an official during the game. A courtside clip caught him asking, “What are you supposed to do? He is 8 feet [expletive] tall.” It was a familiar complaint. When the teams met in last season’s Western Conference semifinals, Finch said at least four of Wembanyama’s 12 blocks in Game 1 should have been called goaltending.

His verdict on Beringer was kinder than Beringer’s own. “He battled, you know, got his hands full for sure, but he battled and did some good things,” Finch said, adding that he “did a good job of navigating some foul difficulty, too.” Ball called him “a monster” who “can be so much more better,” and Kuminga said he kept pulling Beringer aside during the game. “He’s just so hard on himself,” Kuminga said. “I think he’s doing so much good that he’s not realizing that he’s doing a lot of good stuff.” Finch said Kuminga was “built for games like this.” He played 40 minutes without a turnover and dunked on Wembanyama along the way.

What’s next

The schedule eases a little. Minnesota hosts the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, November 2, at 8 p.m. ET (3 a.m. Tuesday, Cairo time), then plays at Houston on Wednesday and at New Orleans on Friday. Kuminga said the message should not change either way: “Our mindset of trying to win the game, no matter who’s out there, who’s in the game, who’s not in the game. I think we’re going to be just fine.”