-
Dave McMenamin
SAN FRANCISCO — After his triple-double helped give the Minnesota Timberwolves a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals with a 102-97 win over the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night, a Wolves staffer waited by the postgame podium to give something to Julius Randle: the game ball.
Randle, who finished with 24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, became just the second player in Minnesota playoff history to record a triple-double, joining Kevin Garnett. By following up his 24-point, 11-assist performance in Game 2 with a similar output on Saturday, Randle also became the first player in franchise history with multiple 20-point, 10-assist games in a single postseason, according to ESPN Research.
“I feel like I just got a lot of different tools, you know what I mean?” Randle said. “It’s really about using my mind and taking what the defense gives me. If they don’t double-team me, score. If they double-team me, find my guys.”
Randle’s distribution skills were on full display in the fourth quarter, as he collected five of his assists and Minnesota outscored Golden State 33-24.
An 11-year veteran, he was particularly effective with his decision-making in crunch time to keep the game out of the Warriors’ reach. He found Jaden McDaniels with a swing pass to set up a wing 3-pointer to double the Wolves’ lead from three to six with 3:20 remaining; he dumped it off to a trailing Rudy Gobert for a dunk plus an and-one free throw to lift Minnesota’s cushion from four to seven with 2:05 to go; and he passed to Anthony Edwards for a corner 3 with 1:19 left that put the Wolves up seven again and finally deflated the home crowd.
“He was incredible, man. Finding everybody on cuts. Finding the open guy time after time. Pushing the pace,” Edwards said of Randle after scoring 28 of his game-high 36 points in the second half. “That’s what we asked of him, and he’s been doing it at a high level. Can’t ask for nothing better. He’s making the game a lot easier for me, so I appreciate having him here.”
Added McDaniels, who was dominant in his own right with 15 points on offense while holding Warriors players to 2-for-12 shooting as their primary defender: “They put the big dude on him, he’s too slow. They put the little guy on him, he’s too strong. So it’s a hard problem for the other team to guard him.”
It was a continuation of a strong couple of months for the 30-year-old Randle, who was acquired in a training camp trade with the New York Knicksalong with Donte Flutnzo and a first-round pick, for the Wolves’ former No. 1 pick, Karl-Anthony Towns.
“It’s really what’s turned our season around — his playmaking, his decision-making, playing through on different spots of the floor,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said, crediting Randle for the Wolves’ 17-4 close to the regular season through their 6-2 run through the playoffs thus far. “He gives us almost another point guard out there. It’s everything for us. It’s been everything for our turnaround. It’s everything for our team.”
Randle also was responsible for two of the six fouls Draymond Green picked up in the second half, as the former Defensive Player of the Year fouled out for Golden State.
“Obviously he’s one of the top defenders in the world,” Jimmy Butler said after scoring 33 points to lead the Warriors. “For sure the best defender on this squad. When he’s out, it is just different. You don’t got nobody back there that’s quarterbacking the way that he does it, that can switch everything, and that gets every loose ball and that can rebound.”
Randle’s imprint on the fourth quarter was necessary with Butler and Jonathan Kuminga (30 points on 11-for-18 shooting, six rebounds) keeping Golden State in it most of the night. If the Warriors looked shellshocked in Game 2, playing for the first time since their star Stephen Curry was ruled out indefinitely with a strained left hamstring, they looked like a team starting to figure things out on the fly on Saturday.
“I felt good about the way the game went tonight, we just couldn’t close it out,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Give them credit. They made all the plays in the fourth and Randle and Edwards really got going, and we just couldn’t quite overcome them once we got down. … The [new] formula [without Curry] looks good. We’ll have some adjustments to make. But I like the matchup. I like what we’re doing.”
And the Wolves like the leadership Randle is bringing to their team.
“He’s a grown man,” Naz Reid said of Randle, “that’s all I got to say about it.”
ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk contributed to this report.
