Timberwolves Chris Finch finishes third in NBA Coach of the Year voting

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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Minnesota Timberwolves are having their best season in 20 years, but it wasn’t enough for Chris Finch to earn the NBA Coach of the Year Award.

The voting results were announced Sunday, and Mark Daigneault won the honor after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 57-25 record and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. The Thunder have a 3-0 lead on the New Orleans Pelicans, with Game 4 set for Monday night.

Chris Finch reacts after Wolves beat Suns in Game 3

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch speaks with reporters after a 126-109 win over the Suns Friday night. Minnesota has a 3-0 lead in the series.

Second place went to Jamahl Mosley, who led the Orlando Magic to a 47-35 regular season record and No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.

Finch earned third place for Coach of the Year with 105 total points. He earned one first place vote, 23 second place votes and 31 third place votes. Finch led the Timberwolves to a 56-26 regular season record, the franchise’s best since the 2003-04 season, when they won 58 games. Their 30-11 record at Target Center was third-best in the Western Conference, and fifth-best in the NBA.

Earlier this week, Naz Reid was named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year.

Finch led the Timberwolves to the No. 3 seed in the West, and they have a chance to close out the Phoenix Suns on Game 4 of their playoff series Sunday night. The Timberwolves have not won a playoff series since Kevin Garnett led them to the 2004 Western Conference Finals.

Finch was asked after Friday night’s Game 3 win about leading the Timberwolves out of more than two decades of losing and dysfunction, and he didn’t want any part of it.

"I don’t care what happened before hand. The reality is we’ve got a bunch of guys who love playing together, they play hard, they play the right way. They’re young, they let me coach them hard and it’s been fun. We don’t really care what happened before, that doesn’t relate to any of us," Finch said.

Finch is 160-127 at Minnesota after being hired in February of 2021 to replace Ryan Saunders.

If the Timberwolves beat the Suns Sunday night, they wait to see who wins the Nuggets/Lakers series, which Denver leads 3-1. If they lose, they host the Suns for Game 5 Tuesday night at Target Center.