NBA referee Zach Zarba was blasted by Ime Udoka on Tuesday for the wrong calls he made in Houston Rockets’ loss to Denver Nuggets. Not even 24 hours after, he is getting an earful from Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch.
Wolves played the Memphis Grizzlies and they had a hard time despite them being the much favored team. Grizzlies did not have Ja Morant while Minnesota missed Anthony Edwards for a third straight game. They also did not have Mike Conley, leaving them with a depleted guard line up.
Timberwolves lost the game by 6 points.
Finch had a lot of frustrated moments in that game but one stood out was his profanity-ladened shouts towards Zarba.
Chris Finch’s full heated exchange with the referee Zach Zarba.
“You just blew two calls. You f*cking know it”.The entire conversation between the two can be heard pic.twitter.com/WFeUG7790Q
— MrBuckBuck (@MrBuckBuckNBA) December 18, 2025
Zarba is the same referee Udoka blasted last Tuesday for wrong calls that the NBA’s Last 2 Minute Report validated. The Rockets coach accused him of getting starstruck.
For his rant, Udoka was fined $25k by the league for his rant.
Chris Finch points out Wolves’ main problem
Unlike Udoka though, Finch is not blaming the referees for their loss. He thought they lost because of their poor execution of their offense.
“A horrendous night offensively, our offensive decision making was awful all night from shot selection to turnovers to execution. It was just not very good,” he told reporters after the game.
He takes the blame for this as he said he did not prepare his team well with the absence of Edwards and Conley.
Rudy Gobert, who is one of the few Finch praised, agreed.
Rudy Gobert on Chris Finch’s assesment that the offense costed the Wolves the game
“I thought offensively it wasn’t really flowing all the time, and when it did, especially in the first half, I thought we were getting a lot of easy points… second half I thought it was a little… pic.twitter.com/NhNb6lOtHv
— Andrew Dukowitz (@adukeMN) December 18, 2025
The offense will definitely get fixed if they will have their playmakers back. Edwards, who plays playmaker now, is out with a foot injury and it is unknown when will he return.
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