When Michael Malone peers down the sideline toward the opposing bench, he doesn’t see the Timberwolves coach everyone is familiar with.
He sees someone even more familiar.
Malone has always carpooled to work with assistant coach Ryan Bowen, but it used to be a three-man ride share during the first three seasons of Malone’s tenure in Denver. Back then, the flights home had a tendency to immediately follow a loss. The Nuggets weren’t a playoff team. Micah Nori brought critical equilibrium to the drive home.
“I’m a little competitive. A little emotional, so they say,” Malone said this March, when the Nuggets were visiting Minnesota.
“Micah would laugh, because after a loss, it’s a 45-minute drive from the airport to where we lived. And after a loss, there wouldn’t be one word spoken. And I think Micah and RyBo were texting each other as they were in the car, like, ‘This guy’s crazy.'”
Six years after Nori’s last game with Malone’s staff — a loss to the Timberwolves that cost Denver a playoff spot — a stroke of bad luck has resulted in Nori standing opposite Malone in a playoff series between the two franchises. Head coach Chris Finch has been forced to take a literal backseat after a freak injury in the last two minutes of Minnesota’s first-round series against Phoenix. Point guard Mike Conley accidentally collided with him on the sideline, rupturing his right patellar tendon and requiring surgery between playoff rounds.
The Timberwolves were left to tinker with the geography of their bench before Game 1. They ended up with Finch sitting in the second row, contributing as much as he can without being able to stand up. Nori is Minnesota’s lead assistant coach under Finch, whom he met in Denver when Finch was Malone’s lead assistant in 2016-17. So, for the foreseeable future, Nori has taken over as the Timberwolves’ standing coach, in charge of game flow such as calling timeouts.
“It’s a little surreal just being that much separated from the action, if you will,” Finch said Sunday. “But it was great. I felt like I was in a safe place. I have utmost confidence in our staff and their ability. I thought they did an amazing job. Communicated well.”
Nori was already a fan favorite in the Twin Cities, best known for his creative analogies during halftime interviews on the local broadcast. “All the plays we scored on were my calls, and the ones we didn’t were (Finch’s),” he said after Minnesota’s 106-99 win Saturday night when asked to assess the awkward layout.
That sense of humor, paired with Nori’s basketball intellect, made him an ideal stabilizing presence alongside Malone. The ninth-year Nuggets coach says his daughters still show him video clips of Nori’s interviews from time to time.
“You mention his name and I laugh, right?” Malone said back in March. “That says it all. … His personality was important for me. Because in a very long NBA season, especially in the first years in Denver when you’re trying to build something … having Micah around was so beneficial because he balanced (my emotion) out. He could bring a smile to my face.”
Finch and Nori have split media responsibilities so far in the second-round series. Before Game 1, Finch handed off his crutches and climbed a handful of stairs to the interview seat in Ball Arena’s press room, declaring, “All right, that was easy.” Then it was Nori speaking to reporters after the game, and Finch the next day at Minnesota’s practice. The Timberwolves have no concern of giving off mixed messages.
“We are very much on the same wavelength,” Finch said. “We share a brain. If you know Micah, it’s not the type of brain you want to share with most people. But we are very much in sync.”
Finch’s presence will still be felt in the series, even if he’s less visible. He’s calling the majority of Minnesota’s plays from the second row, and players said he was in their ears plenty.
“It worked out better than I thought it would,” Kyle Anderson said. “I didn’t know where he was gonna sit or how it was gonna go.”
“It’s not like he wasn’t out there,” Jaden McDaniels added.
It’s more so that there’s an extra layer during live play — yet another Nuggets connection in a series littered with them. Nori is in the driver’s seat for Minnesota. Finch is riding shotgun.