The NBA playoffs usually tend to feature a sprinkle of officiating controversy, and this year's Western Conference finals will likely be no exception.

It looks like the mind games have already started between the Oklahoma Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of Game 1 on Tuesday night, with Thunder coach Mark Daigneault fielding questions about his adversary's well-known attempts to try to curry favor with the refs.

Daigneault was asked in a pregame press conference for his thoughts on Timberwolves coach Chris Finch potentially trying to get a leg up in the playoff series by politicking to the refs to sway their opinion.

Daigneault bluntly responded that his focus is on his own team and that he trusted the refs working the games to do their job.

"We prepare the team for the games, first of all," said Daigneault. "I said this in the Denver series because it came up there too—teams, players, coaches are going to use the media to try to influence the whistle as a competitive advantage.

"... My mentality on that is, it's the Western Conference Finals. The guys working these games aren't here for an accident. I don't think they're influenced by anything I say or anything our team says. I don't think they're compromised by what anybody else says. We just are going to focus on what we can control."

In the Thunder's last regular season meeting against the Timberwolves back in February, Minnesota overcame a 25-point deficit to beat OKC in a 131–128 overtime thriller. Despite his team's win, Finch spent a portion of his postgame presser criticizing the refs for their perceived golden whistle toward the Thunder.

"It's so frustrating to play this team because they foul a ton. They really do. They foul, they foul all the time," Finch said. "And then you can't really touch Shai [Gilgeous-Alexander]. It's a very frustrating thing, and it takes a lot of mental toughness to play through it."

The officiating surrounding the Thunder—and, more specifically, around Gilgeous-Alexander—has been a hot topic this past season, and it may very likely stay that way in the playoffs. Tip-off for Game 1 is 8:30 p.m. ET.

More NBA Playoffs on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Thunder Coach Had Blunt Take on Timberwolves’ Chris Finch Complaining to Refs About Fouls.

Test hyperlink for boilerplate