Takeaways: Julius Randle steps up in fourth quarter of Timberwolves’ victory over Knicks

Even though Karl-Anthony Towns played an excellent game against his former team, another player involved in last September’s blockbuster trade between the Timberwolves and Knicks got some revenge in the fourth quarter.

Julius Randle, who had a tough first three quarters, turned it on when it mattered most in the fourth. After starting the game 3-for-11 from the floor, Randle went 7-for-9 in the fourth and finished the game with 25 points in the Wolves’ 115-104 victory Tuesday, Dec. 23.

After hitting the first shot in that run, Randle flexed for the crowd even though he was just 4-for-12 on the night. Perhaps he knew an outburst was coming. He’d hit his next three shots — a few of them over Towns — to extend the Wolves’ lead to 12 halfway through the quarter.

“It was just whatever to get myself going at that point, so that’s just really what it was,” Randle said of his gesture. “I wasn’t really down, like mentally, up until that point. It was just more of an energy lift. Crowd got going, I got into it, they gave me energy and I just rode it from there.”

He had help from Anthony Edwards, who was the Wolves’ main source of scoring most of the night with 38 points on 15-for-27. Towns finished with 40.

The Knicks entered the game without multiple key players, including Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Deuce McBride, but the Wolves did as they should in that circumstance and defeated an undermanned team. With their 10th victory in 12 games, they are now 20-10 on the season.

Rudy Gobert had another important night on both ends of the floor for the Wolves with 11 points and 16 rebounds. After the game, coach Chris Finch said Gobert’s play over the last several weeks has been “Defensive Player of the Year stuff,” referring to the league award Gobert has won four times.

Early in the season, when the Wolves defense was struggling, Gobert talked about the need to raise the team’s level. The 7-foot-1 center took that message personally as well.

“I feel like I’m coming in every night with the mindset of helping the team win and be who I am, which is, I think, the best defender in the world,” Gobert said. “I know that I have to be that consistently for us to achieve what we want to achieve as a team. It’s still early in the season, but that’s how I want to be every night, and that’s who I’m going to be.”

Towns had 31 points and 20 rebounds in his first game back at Target Center last season, and with New York shorthanded, he took on the scoring burden again. Even in the third quarter, when Towns picked up his fourth foul early, coach Mike Brown stuck with him because the Knicks didn’t have much more firepower behind him. He fouled out with 34.9 seconds left.

The Wolves made their biggest run of the first half as Towns rested through the early part of the second quarter. They opened up their lead to as much as 16 thanks to a 26-8 run. Bones Hyland came off the bench and was 3-for-6 from the three-point range in the first half. The Wolves did a commendable job on the glass with Reid pulling down seven rebounds and Gobert grabbing 10. They had 12 second-chance points.

But when Towns returned, the Knicks got back in it, thanks to his 24 first-half points and with a switch to a zone defense that stifled the Wolves’ offensive rhythm. This coincided with Gobert going to the bench for the Wolves.

NBA standings

After suffering an oblique strain against Milwaukee on Dec. 21, Jaden McDaniels sat out against the Knicks. The forward missed his second game of the season after playing in all 82 games a season ago. Mike Conley got the start in McDaniels’ place.