Even if that road felt like it had a lot of dead ends during the course of the season. The Wolves started the season with the controversial move of trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, who had 13 points on Wednesday. The fit, to say the least, was clunky, and halfway through the season, the Wolves were underwhelming. The fan base and the team could feel it. But Randle and coach Chris Finch figured out his fit, the team played its best basketball after he returned from a groin injury (17-4) and they’ve kept rolling ever since. They are now 25-6 since Randle came back from that injury.
“I was talking to my agent, Aaron Mintz, and he was always telling me, ‘Just be engaged with your teammates, even though you’re on the sidelines. I think that was another moment of growth for me in a way,” Randle said of sitting out. “Because even though I wasn’t playing, just being engaged, cheering for the guys, encouraging them, being able to use my voice in a way that maybe I haven’t been comfortable in the past with. … After I came back, my mindset was just how can I help this team win, and it’s as simple as that.”
Randle helped put the Warriors away after they cut a 25-point lead to nine in the fourth quarter; he had eight points in the quarter. Edwards finished with 22 points but had 12 assists, his best total in a playoff game.
“The most together team and the most mature team is the team that wins around this time,” Edwards said. “It’s not about who gets 30 points, who gets the most shots, who gets all the blame for winning the game. It’s not about none of that. It’s about coming together as a team. Can we defend at a high level? Can we limit the other team to one shot? It doesn’t really matter about offense.”
Those kinds of words from Edwards reflect the culture Finch has tried to build since he became the coach in Edwards’ rookie year. Earlier this season, Finch spoke about wanting to build a culture that could make consistent deep playoff runs, while keeping in mind something his boss, Wolves President Tim Connelly, often says: “The path to success is not always linear.”