Julius Randle had a game to forget on Thursday, and a video of him from the game is sparking attention online.
The Minnesota Timberwolves big man Randle turned in a nightmare evening in Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, O.K. He finished with six points on 2/11 shooting (missing all three of his long-range attempts too) as Minnesota got blown out 118-103 to fall behind in the series 2-0.
Making matters worse for Randle was that he was benched by Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch for the entire fourth quarter. Randle subbed out at the end of the third quarter and did not return to the game from there.
User @rexkwondo54, who was apparently in attendance at the contest, shared a video on X of Randle from the middle of that fourth quarter. With just over six minutes left, Randle was gesturing towards the stands, moving his arm in a sideways direction.
The user said that Randle was motioning towards his family in the stands, telling them to leave. However, others who viewed the video thought that Randle was actually motioning for his family to sit down instead. You can see the video for yourself here.
In any case, it looked like Randle’s head was not at all in the game on Thursday. Over the course of his 32 minutes, Randle was a -15 and also committed four costly turnovers.
To his credit, Randle did well in Game 1 against the Thunder with 28 points and eight rebounds on 9/13 shooting. The former All-Star has also enjoyed an excellent postseason overall with nine outings of 20 points or more (out of 12 total games). But Randle, who has been criticized in the past over his attitude, will need to find his groove again if the Timberwolves want to have any chance of coming back to win against the Thunder.
