Draymond Green's inability to limit Julius Randle became a major problem for the Golden State Warriors in their second-round playoff series, with the Minnesota Timberwolves star proving a huge factor in his team's 4-1 victory.
Randle averaged 25.2 points on over 53% shooting against the Warriors, while also adding 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. Green admitted that his opposing forward won the matchup, with the All-NBA defender drawing criticism for having no answer to Randle's dominance.
Julius Randle continued his hot form in Game 1 of the Conference Finals
Any thought that Green has lost a step defensively after the Randle matchup may be a little over-exaggerated though, at least based on Game 1 of the Conference Finals between the Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center.
The top-seed Thunder were easily the league's best defense throughout the regular season, but even they couldn't find an answer for Randle in the first-half as the 30-year-old continued his red-hot form. Randle had five threes and 20 points by half-time, giving the Timberwolves a four-point lead on the road at the main break.
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Randle had another eight points in the second-half to finish with a team-high 28 and eight rebounds on an efficient 9-of-13 shooting, but unfortunately for the Timberwolves they had no else going offensively outside of the 3x All-Star.
Superstar guard Anthony Edwards was kept to 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting, with no other Minnesota player scoring in double figures as OKC dominated the second-half to claim a 114-88 victory.
After shooting 42.6% from 3-point range over the final four games against the Warriors, the Timberwolves went just 15-of-51 (29.4%) in Game 1. Former Warrior guard Donte DiVincenzo epitomized those struggles, going 3-of-14 from the floor and 3-of-12 from beyond the arc while finishing as a -20 in his 30 minutes off the bench.
Potential MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 31 points and nine assists for the hosts, while Jalen Williams added 19 points, eight rebounds, five assists and five steals as the Thunder outscored the Timberwolves 70-40 in the second-half.
Despite what resulted as a blowout loss, Randle can still take confidence forward after being perhaps the only positive for Minnesota. His performance against the league's best defense makes Green's struggles against Randle look less egregious, though that will provide little comfort to the Warrior legend who now has to watch on after previously declaring that his team would win the championship.