Julius Randle discussed his disappearance during Wolves Game 4 loss to Thunder: ‘A lot of me just spectating’

The Minnesota Timberwolves only lost Game 4 to the Oklahoma City Thunder by two points, which was a near-miraculous result given their two star players were non-factors offensively for much of the night. 

Anthony Edwards took two shots in the first half and finished with 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting, boasting as many turnovers as made baskets. It wasn’t dissimilar to his Game 1 performance, where the attention and pressure from the Thunder’s defense limited him to 13 shot attempts. Complicating matters was the Timberwolves’ No. 2 also was a no-show, as Julius Randle scored just five points on 1-of-7 shooting. 

With Randle and Edwards both out of sorts offensively, the bench picked up the slack and nearly led them to a victory, but against an great opponent it’s incredibly hard to overcome bad games from your two best players. 

Randle’s resurgence as a strong playoff performer in his first year in Minnesota had been one of the best stories of the postseason and was a major factor in the Wolves reaching the conference finals. However, Monday night was the second time (along with Game 2) that Randle was held to single-digit scoring and seemed completely out of sorts. After the game, Randle didn’t have much of an answer, saying he was “spectating” 

“To be honest, I think it was just a lot of me just spectating,” Randle said. “I gotta figure out a way to get myself involved in actions. I think I didn’t take my first shot in the second half until like 20 seconds in the third quarter. So it’s like, I gotta figure out a way to get in position to be more aggressive rather than standing, spectating or trying to crash the glass. Or I can find other little things to do as well.”

It’s the second time Randle used the spectating line, doing the same after his Game 2 struggles, and Minnesota hopes the response is the same. Both he and Edwards came out aggressive and on point in Game 3, leading the Wolves to a blowout win for their only win so far this series. They need that kind of effort again in Oklahoma City Wednesday if they’re going to extend the series, but the Thunder will certainly have something to say about it. 

For Randle, at the very least he won’t want to end what has been a terrific individual playoff run on such a sour note. He’s rewritten the narrative about his impact in the playoffs over the last six weeks and will want to make sure he goes down swinging, not spectating.