OKLAHOMA CITY — Moments after grabbing his sixth rebound of the game, this one on the offensive end with just over four minutes to play in the third quarter that extended the possession for the Minnesota Timberwolves, Julius Randle went to the bench to grab a well-deserved breather. At the time, he had 26 points, six rebounds and five assists, and he was the biggest reason his team held a five-point lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
This was the Julius Randle of the first two rounds of last year’s playoffs. The big, physical, playmaking forward who helped power the Wolves to the Western Conference finals. For most of the previous six weeks, Randle has been a shell of himself. His 3-point shot had abandoned him. He was turning the ball over more than ever, and his assist numbers dried up.
The Timberwolves’ top priority as they careen down the train tracks toward the playoffs is to get Randle back in the groove he had in the season’s opening 15 games, when he averaged 25.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 6.1 assists and shot 37 percent from 3.
That version was there on Sunday against one of the teams that have historically given Randle the most problems. He finished with 32 points, seven rebounds, six assists and just one turnover, but the Timberwolves fell apart when he went to the bench at the end of the third quarter. The Thunder closed with a 14-5 run to jump in front and never looked back from there en route to a 116-103 victory, Minnesota’s fourth loss in five games.
The Timberwolves (41-27) turned the ball over 25 times, leading to 29 points for Oklahoma City. They also gave up 15 offensive rebounds, which gifted the Thunder another 20 points, and headed home after a 1-3 road trip dropped them to sixth place in the West.
“It wasn’t a great trip,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “There’s no denying that. We would’ve liked to come out of it with another win or two at least. But it’s the West. Everything’s tough. Gotta focus on what’s ahead of us.”
The best thing to come from a fifth straight double-digit loss was Randle’s re-emergence. He made 11 of 18 shots, including 3-of-5 shooting on 3s, a crucial uptick after his shot fell off a cliff over the last two months. He also played much better defensively, even blocking a shot on a drive from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Randle was coming off a 10-point, four-turnover game at the Golden State Warriors in which he was benched for most of the fourth quarter. It was the continuation of a series of low-impact performances for him, one of the biggest reasons the Wolves have been so inconsistent over the last two months. He had topped 20 points just once in the previous 11 games, and Finch made it a priority to get him more involved in the early going.
“I’ve got to direct the ball to him more in the spots where he’s really good,” Finch said before the game. “I think we’ve gotten away from that at times. I think that will certainly help him. Also, we’ve got to generate some more open looks overall for each other. I think that will help, too.”
With Anthony Edwards laboring because of a sore right knee, Randle and Ayo Dosunmu stepped in to pick up the scoring slack. Randle scored 17 points in the first half, looking like the assertive, forceful version of himself that makes him so important to this team. The Wolves were down 9-0 to start the game thanks to a slew of turnovers and missed shots, but Randle willed them back into the game.
He knocked down 3s off the two-man game with Edwards, roasted Lu Dort for pull-up jumpers, cooked Isaiah Hartenstein on drives to the basket to help Minnesota build a nine-point lead in the third quarter.
“That was super fun to watch,” Edwards said. “We were trying to get it to him as much as possible. He found his rhythm tonight, and hopefully that carries over.”
Several factors have led to the team’s recent offensive struggles, but Randle’s slump is near the top. He has never been a great 3-point shooter, but he has shown the ability to get on a roll in key stretches.
He shot 39 percent from deep in last year’s first-round playoff win over the Los Angeles Lakers and 48 percent against the Thunder in the conference finals. But it has been a steady, month-by-month decline this season. Randle shot 31.6 percent in November, 29.3 percent in December and 33.8 in January, before falling completely off the cliff. He made 22.7 percent of his 3s in February and was at 14 percent in March before the game against the Thunder.
That’s what made Sunday’s breakthrough so important.
“It definitely felt good to see the ball go in a little bit more today,” Randle said. “Just stay focused and be consistent.”
Dosunmu hit all six of his shots, including three 3s, in the first half and finished with 18 points and four rebounds. Donte DiVincenzo had 16 points and a team-leading nine boards.
Edwards scored 19 points, but was just 6 of 17 from the field, 5 of 10 from the free-throw line and also turned it over six times. He was listed as questionable for the game with right knee soreness and could be seen limping throughout the game. He insisted he will be fine, and he played excellent defense on Gilgeous-Alexander, forcing the MVP into a rare inefficient night. SGA was just 7 of 22 from the field and needed a three-point play with 1:46 to play to extend his league-record streak of 20-point games to 128 in a row.
“I had too many turnovers myself, and I didn’t make enough shots,” Edwards said. “I don’t think it’s got nothing to do with my teammates. It’s more so myself.”
What made this loss to the defending champions more disappointing than most was how many things went well for Minnesota. The Timberwolves played terrific first-shot defense against the Thunder for most of the night, scrambling, hustling and contesting. Finch said their internal tracking had the Thunder shooting 11 of 40 on their first shot of each possession.
The Wolves shot 71 percent against the vaunted Thunder defense in the second quarter and outshot Oklahoma City 53 percent to 32 percent in the first half. But they led by only six points because they turned it over 12 times to Oklahoma City’s two and gave up nine offensive rebounds. Thunder starters racked up 11 offensive boards for the game, led by Hartenstein’s four. All of the offensive rebounds and Minnesota’s turnovers gave Oklahoma City a staggering 24 more shots than the Wolves.
“The inevitable happened because we gave them too many second-chance opportunities early in the game and they just piled up as the game went on,” Randle said. “It kind of set a tone from the beginning. We played pretty good defense. We just gave them too many opportunities and doubled it up with the turnovers.”
Rudy Gobert had one of his worst games of the season, fumbling the ball all over the place on a four-turnover day and only grabbing six defensive rebounds. The Wolves were outscored by 23 points in his 28 minutes, a stark contrast to Hartenstein, whose playmaking and deftness with the ball in his hands created open 3 after open 3 for the Thunder.
“Not up to his standards, for sure,” Finch said of Gobert.
The only reason Gobert played at all in the fourth quarter was that Naz Reid aggravated his bothersome right shoulder injury and Jaden McDaniels was in foul trouble. McDaniels had just two points and one rebound in 16 minutes, the fourth time in the last six games that he has not reached double-figure scoring. He has picked up at least four fouls in eight of the last 12 games after avoiding foul trouble for most of the season.
“I still maintain he doesn’t get the amount of respect defensively that he should,” Finch said, pointing to the third foul called on McDaniels early in the second quarter in which he grabbed Ajay Mitchell on an inbounds play. “If you watch their defenders play defense, they grab and hold a lot, too, which is fine. That’s part of the game. But you call that one and whistle him out of the game, that one’s tough for us.”
So, why the focus on Randle after another loss for the Timberwolves? Because getting Randle to re-emerge as a tentpole player is a realistic goal for the Timberwolves, given his history with this team and in this league. He can be inconsistent, but they have seen him reach sustained highs over the last two seasons.
“When he plays decisive, whether it’s quick reads or shooting the 3 or driving it or getting to the next action, that really keeps our offense popping and keeps our offense live,” Dosunmu said. “We need that because sometimes we get bogged down, and the ball isn’t moving, and we’re taking one-pass shots. For us to be at our best, I think we have to play with pace.”
It is harder to expect this team to clean up its sloppiness with the ball. They are 19th in the league in turnovers per game and lack the ballhandling to play a cleaner game. Most of the responsibilities have fallen on Edwards. There are games where he handles it well, and then there are games when he gives it away too easily.
Dosunmu is a welcome addition in that area, but DiVincenzo, McDaniels, Reid and Randle have all proven to be susceptible to turnovers at different points, and Gobert has proven completely unreliable with the ball in his hands.
That gave the last four minutes of the third quarter and the 36-27 fourth quarter a bit of a helpless feeling. There is no magic, sure-handed dribbler coming to save the Timberwolves.
“We can’t worry about what we do and don’t have at this point in the season,” Finch said. “We are who we are.”
He said the key is to spread the duties as much as possible so that no one player feels too much pressure. They wanted to have McDaniels handle it more on Sunday, but foul trouble kept him out of the equation.
They are 1 1/2 games ahead of the Phoenix Suns for the seventh spot, which would put them in the Play-In Tournament. The Suns come to Target Center on Tuesday in a huge game.
The turnover problems can be reduced, but they won’t be eliminated. If Randle really is back and Edwards’ knee soreness is short-lived, the Wolves can get right back in the hunt.
If not, the pathway to a deep playoff run gets harder and harder to see.