{"id":289141,"date":"2026-05-12T06:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289141\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T06:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T06:02:13","slug":"julius-randle-holds-the-keys-to-escaping-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/289141\/","title":{"rendered":"Julius Randle Holds the Keys To Escaping San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the Minnesota Timberwolves won Game 4 to tie the series 2-2, Chris Finch admitted he\u2019d have liked to use the Minnesota Timberwolves\u2019 small-ball lineup more against the San Antonio Spurs. Unfortunately, Julius Randle<\/a>\u00a0has kept the Wolves from doing that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get to the lineup,\u201d Finch said. \u201cIn Game 3, Julius\u2019 foul trouble kind of hurt us. Tonight, I was gun-shy earlier on against some of their smaller lineups. [But the small-ball lineup were] the guys [who] were playing the best in the game, and [we] needed to get them out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julius Randle has become a fulcrum in Minnesota\u2019s game plan against the Spurs. Rudy Gobert<\/a> may guard Victor Wembanyama<\/a> more effectively in a vacuum. However, Randle can slow him down<\/a>, and the Wolves tend to get better looks<\/a> with their small-ball lineup.<\/p>\n

The Spurs have occasionally isolated Gobert offensively, forcing Minnesota\u2019s players away from him. When he can\u2019t hand the ball to his teammates or set picks for them, their ball movement stalls and the offense stagnates.<\/p>\n

Conversely, when Randle is playing effectively, the Timberwolves can use a smaller lineup that plays inside-out, using drive-and-kicks to space the floor. In doing so, they can move Wembanyama away from the basket and generate open threes or lanes to the basket.<\/p>\n

However, the Wolves can only implement this strategy if Julius Randle is productive.<\/p>\n

Randle picked up four fouls in the first three quarters of Game 3. Chris Finch deployed him at the 2:26-minute mark of the fourth quarter after using a bigger lineup with Gobert for the rest of the fourth. Randle picked up his fifth foul with 1:22 left in the game.<\/p>\n

Finch left Randle in, but at the risk of him fouling out. Had he gone to him earlier, Randle may have fouled out. Randle also didn\u2019t play well in Game 3, scoring 12 points in 31 minutes on 3-of-12 shooting and 0-for-3 from three.<\/p>\n

Randle didn\u2019t play much better in Game 4. He had 12 points in 38 minutes, going 5 for 12 from the field and 2 for 4 from three. He also had a team-high six turnovers and only three assists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were probably just trying to play too fast,\u201d said Finch. \u201cLike the one in transition, he probably didn\u2019t see the guy tracking back. Maybe just kind of playing in the crowd a little bit too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randle said his play was \u201csolid\u201d after the game, and that he\u2019s \u201cdoing whatever the team needs for me to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

He likely came to that conclusion because of his defense. Still, Randle must play better to give Minnesota the option to go five-out against San Antonio.<\/p>\n

Gobert ultimately played well in the final minutes of Game 4, setting screens to create good looks, scoring on alley-oops, and cleaning up misses. The Wolves can close with him. Still, there are scenarios where they\u2019re better off using Randle and a smaller lineup to create good looks.<\/p>\n

However, Randle must be productive for that to work, and Finch must be willing to go small. Gobert was pivotal against Nikola Jokic<\/a> and the Denver Nuggets in Round 1, and he played well at the end of Game 3. Still, the Wolves have multiple looks to upset San Antonio and reach the Western Conference Finals. Ultimately, Julius Randle must be at his best to allow them to do that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Minnesota Timberwolves won Game 4 to tie the series 2-2, Chris Finch admitted he\u2019d have liked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[102894,69104,6399,3080,24219,82,84,83,509],"class_list":["post-289141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-chris-finch","tag-julius-randle","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-rudy-gobert","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}