The Timberwolves have found their playoff point guard. And it’s … Julius Randle?

SAN FRANCISCO Minnesota trailed Golden State - with fewer than eight minutes to play in Battle on Saturday The Timberwolves had been a little scrambled for much of the evening committing turnovers to help the Warriors playing without their best participant in Steph Curry ahead by a nose for much of the contest Minnesota needed someone to stabilize the ship to get across the finish line first in enemy waters As has often been the occurrence over the past couple months that person was Julius Randle The Timberwolves outscored Golden State - over the ensuing six-plus minutes Minnesota made seven field goals in that span Randle scored the first two He assisted on the remaining five Whether it was bullying the smaller Draymond Green to eventually foul out the former Defensive Participant of the Year or blowing past the slower Kevon Looney Randle proved to be unguardable with Competition in the balance He s been a big playmaker scorer Wolves wing Jaden McDaniels commented He can figure at all three levels I mean 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 difficulty for the other association to guard him He makes all the right plays We can t be more grateful to have him McDaniels knows how the Warriors feel Prior to Minnesota acquiring Randle on the eve of training camp it was McDaniels who was frequently tasked with guarding him when the Knicks and Wolves would square off It rarely went well Randle averaged points over his last four games against Minnesota including a -point performance He was like running me over I couldn t even hold him off the post sometimes recalled McDaniels an All-NBA defender who held Warriors players to -or- shooting in his matchups Saturday I was trying to make it hard for him but nah he was seemingly cooking me worse than he was cooking the Warriors Maybe but Randle sure is searing Golden State and doing so with far more than buckets The forward has been the primary conductor of any offensive success Minnesota has realized in these conference semifinals which the Timberwolves lead - ahead of Monday s Encounter at Chase Arena Golden State has proven to be one of the NBA s premier defenses since acquiring Jimmy Butler at the agreement deadline The Warriors have shown why in this series There have been numerous periods in which executing offense feels like a monumental task for Minnesota The Wolves scored one point over the final minutes seconds of the second quarter in Tournament The Warriors are physical and relentless on that end but Randle is proving to be someone who can match those levels offensively Timberwolves coach Chris Finch noted it was when Minnesota started playing through Randle down the stretch that it felt for the first time consistently all tournament we truly like went somewhere He s playing with so much force and determination He s going out there early and aggressive Finch declared Sometimes when it s really sticky on the perimeter like the holding all the time everywhere and they re really handsy we play through Randle He just kind of gives us a pressure release Randle had points assists and rebounds in Championship He tallied dimes in Meeting A creator a hub a go-to-guy Whatever you want to call it Randle has fit the bill Anthony Edwards was miserable offensively for the first two and a half games of the series but he exploded for points in the second half on Saturday Randle was a big reason why Golden State is taking away Edwards space on the perimeter so his go-to pull-up triple is null and void at the moment The Warriors are blitzing Edwards on ball screens The all-star guard hasn t been able to effectively initiate offense for Minnesota Edwards declared he believes playing off the ball is a better situation for him in this matchup He s playing off of Randle who s finding him on cuts and spot-up situations to allow Edwards to get particular better looks and establish a rhythm Edwards noted Randle was incredible on Saturday with his ability to find open teammates and determine the tempo Can t ask for nothing better Edwards commented He s making the championship a lot easier for me Randle announced he has a lot of different tools at his disposal and can use his mind to take what the defense gives him If that s an open take it If that s a less-agile defender like Looney Randle knows to get into pick-and-roll actions with Conley to compromise the opposing big man in space where he s far less calm and effective Being able to read what s going on out there if I get a mismatch getting to my operating areas and attacking Randle disclosed If they don t double-team me tally If they double-team me find my guys Read the defense to generate consistently good offense for himself and others That sounds a lot like the role of a point guard The lack of one moving into the future has been a driver of angst among Timberwolves fans Mike Conley is aging out of the role and Rob Dillingham still has to prove he s floor general material Even with the leaps Edwards has made with his playmaking and floor vision the general assumption has constantly been that he d be better playing alongside a table setter who can help generate looks for him Enter Randle who has sneakily taken over that role over the past couple of months That was highlighted Saturday as the forward notched nine second-half assists six on Edwards buckets It s really what s turned our season around his playmaking his decision-making playing through him on different spots of the floor Finch revealed I ve invariably known he was a good playmaker Our time together in New Orleans he played a little bit like this He gives us almost another point guard like out there It s everything for us It s been everything for our turnaround It s everything for our squad It certainly was in Tournament Golden State is largely offensively inept in the half court without Curry The Warriors relied almost solely on pace and transition to generate advantages to create good looks That well dried up in the final frame largely thanks to Randle He plays a deliberate brand of basketball in the half court that not only generates good looks for Minnesota but sets the pace of the battle Randle is the biggest reason Minnesota has morphed into a clutch-time monster in these playoffs When he has the rock it feels as though the Wolves are dictating the terms under which the contest is being played As a floor general should His physicality his demeanor the way he can control the pace control the meeting on both ends of the floor it kind of gives us specific control It gives us the ability to kind of settle into who we want to be offensively defensively Conley noted We can get sporadic at times but having a guy that you can just get a ball to and post him up or just slow the meeting down and allow us to cut off of him and him make plays for everybody and make the battle easy it helps a lot