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Julius Randle is turning the narrative of his career around in a huge way. To start off Game 1 of the Minnesota Timberwolves' Western Conference Finals clash against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Randle had the hot hand, continuing his excellent play thus far throughout the 2025 NBA playoffs with another brilliant offensive explosion.
Randle had the stroke going from beyond the arc and was automatic from everywhere on the court. The Timberwolves forward put up 20 points on 6-8 shooting from the field (5-6 from beyond the arc), as he rained fire on the Thunder's defense. In fact, Randle even had one heat check triple from multiple steps beyond the three-point line, which is a testament to his torrid shooting on Tuesday night.
The only two-pointer Randle made on the night was also a difficult one; he turned around to his left shoulder and drilled a tough fadeaway. Nearly all season long, the Timberwolves received plenty of criticism for their decision to trade former face of the franchise Karl-Anthony Towns for someone who has struggled in the playoffs in the past. But Randle is proving their decision to be an astute one, and his Game 1 performance against the Thunder is further evidence of that.
As a result, Timberwolves fans were in celebration of Randle's bonkers first-half.
“Julius Randle heating up in Game 1 like he’s trying to personally delete every bad playoff take on his name. Man’s playing like he just read the comment section and took it way too personally,” X user @Go1DenUpdates wrote.
“Julius Randle is playing like a Zach Randolph and Kevin Garnett hybrid and watching him show off his full skillset this playoff run has been fun to watch,” @delltrades added.
“If you can’t appreciate this Randle playoff run you don’t like ball,” @YunglordKari furthered.
“Now that Julius Randle is a stamped playoff riser we need to have the dialogue that his 2023 playoffs was the most over hated playoff run of all time,” @NYSportsFanCush exclaimed.
Julius Randle continues to lift the Timberwolves
In the first two rounds, the Timberwolves had a significant size advantage over their opponents. This paved the way for Julius Randle to do his damage, and entering the Thunder series, he's averaging 23.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game on, most importantly, excellent shooting splits of 51/35/89.
Now, the rest of the Timberwolves roster has to wake up now that Randle is sure to command greater defensive attention. The Timberwolves will need more production from the likes of Donte DiVincenzo and Naz Reid if they were to snatch Game 1 from the Thunder.
