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Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks shoots the ball during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 23, 2025 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\nMINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Julius Randle had been quiet, just 3-for-11 from the field.<\/p>\n
Then all of a sudden, he was staring down his former team\u2019s bench as he put the Knicks away.<\/p>\n
With the Knicks down six points in the fourth quarter, he scored 15 straight Timberwolves points \u2014 and 17 in the fourth quarter \u2014 to end any thought of a comeback. After stripping Karl-Anthony Towns and dunking on the other end, he mean-mugged the Knicks bench and flexed to the crowd. He finished with 25 points.<\/p>\n
To dig the knife further, it was the other ex-Knick, Donte DiVincenzo, who hit the dagger, drilling a 3-pointer to give the Timberwolves a 17-point lead.<\/p>\n
After winning seven in a row (including the NBA Cup final, which doesn\u2019t count in the standings), the Knicks have dropped two of their past three as they fell 115-104 Tuesday night at the Target Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just aggressive,\u201d coach Mike Brown said of Randle. \u201cHe was just taking it right to us. We started blitzing [Anthony] Edwards, and they basically just gave him the ball and he put his head down and he attacked our chests. Again, we gotta give them credit, because he used his footwork, he used his power, he used his strength, he used his quickness to get by us, to finish at the rim and to get to the free-throw line.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks shoots the ball during the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on December 23, 2025 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Give the Knicks credit, though. They basically decided to punt Tuesday\u2019s game, but made it more competitive than it probably should have been. They rested Jalen Brunson and OG Anunoby, having logged heavy minutes of late amid a busy schedule. Those two average a combined 44.6 points per game, with Anunoby also representing their best defensive player.<\/p>\n
Down by 16 in the second quarter, it would have been easy to lay down and get ready to travel home. But they cut their deficit to six entering halftime. Then after giving up the first six points of the third quarter and facing a 12-point deficit, they could have eased up. But they ripped off a 17-3 run to take a two-point lead.<\/p>\n
Towns, playing in Minnesota for just the second time since the Knicks\u2019 blockbuster trade to acquire him right before the start of last season, was carrying them. The bench, which coach Mike Brown was relying on much more than normal given how short-handed they were, was holding its own. Tyler Kolek, making his first career start, had a valiant showing, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds \u2014 both career highs \u2014 along with eight assists.<\/p>\n
Eventually, though, that lack of firepower was outclassed by the nearly full-strength Timberwolves. The Knicks committed 19 turnovers as well, struggling against the Timberwolves\u2019 physicality. Josh Hart had six of them.<\/p>\n
![\"Julius](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2252691588.jpg\")
Julius Randle of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrates during the game against the New York Knicks on December 23, 2025 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cWe battled back and then we just didn\u2019t play good enough to finish it,\u201d Hart said. \u201cI had too many turnovers. Some of those turnovers turned into easy baskets, and that kind of kills any momentum we kind of have. I gotta be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anthony Edwards was just coming back from an injury the last time these two teams met \u2014 a 137-114 Knicks win \u2014 on Nov. 5 and struggled, recording just 15 points on 5-for-13 shooting. But he was at full force Tuesday, and without Anunoby to guard him, the Knicks had little answer. He poured in 38 points, including 16 in the third quarter when the Timberwolves overcame the Knicks\u2019 comeback. Mikal Bridges largely matched up with him and struggled.<\/p>\n
Towns finished with 40 points but was not able to carry the Knicks single-handedly.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI knew what the situation was,\u201d Towns said. \u201cI knew that the ball would find me more today and I wanted to be aggressive, impact winning. I thought I just wanted to do whatever it took to come out of here with a win. Obviously we didn\u2019t do enough, I didn\u2019t do enough. This is going to be a tough plane ride home.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kolek, Mohamed Diawara and Kevin McCullar Jr. were on the floor at the same time at one point. McCullar had played a total of just one minute and 14 seconds before Tuesday. Pac\u00f4me Dadiet played eight minutes in the second quarter \u2014 that alone represented his biggest workload of the season \u2014 and 11 minutes total. He had appeared in 10 games this year before Tuesday, almost exclusively in garbage time and has bounced between the G League and the NBA roster.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not exactly a recipe for success. But the Knicks preferred to provide Brunson and Anunoby a bit of extra rest for the long haul. When those decisions are made, they have to live with the result.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did fight in spurts,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut I\u2019m greedy just like everyone in that locker room is. We\u2019re all competitive and we know we could\u2019ve done a better job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS \u2014 Julius Randle had been quiet, just 3-for-11 from the field. Then all of a sudden, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4777,17661,1555,1556,9130,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-79954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-jalen-brunson","9":"tag-julius-randle","10":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","11":"tag-mike-brown","12":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-new-york-news","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}