Julius Randle led his Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night, scoring 28 points and eight rebounds against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Yet, it wasn’t enough, and the T-Wolves fell to the Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
Following that loss, Randle spoke with ESPN and reminded fans and his fellow players that the team was also defeated by the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the last round, but Minnesota ended up winning that series.
“We proved that we can do it, but we got to make it happen, too,” Randle said. “We can’t just be like, ‘All right, we did it last series … we’re going to do it again.’ This is a great team. They’ve been playing great basketball all year. So, the good thing is we proved to ourselves that we can do it. But we got to make it happen.”
The Timberwolves have rebounded before, but can they do it again?
Obviously, this series against OKC will be very different than the one against the Warriors.
For starters, the Warriors were without their lead player, Steph Curry, for nearly all of that matchup.
Secondly, the Thunder are a young, energetic, defensive juggernaut that has been the best team in the West all season long.
The Timberwolves have their work cut out for them, but they are also a smart and accomplished team with a defense to brag about.
Yes, they had an off night on Tuesday, but they can learn from that and get back on track.
If they want that to happen, Randle needs a lot of help from his co-stars, including Anthony Edwards and especially Rudy Gobert, who only put up two points and three rebounds.
The Timberwolves need to believe in themselves, but they can’t take anything for granted in this series.
NEXT: Chris Finch Reveals What Went Wrong For Timberwolves On Tuesday