MINNEAPOLIS — Nothing worked for Julius Randle through three quarters on Tuesday night.
He missed eight of 11 shots, including all four 3-point attempts, and turned it over twice. He got to the free-throw line for only two attempts, a tell-tale sign of passivity for the man they call “The Bully.” His Minnesota Timberwolves were getting bludgeoned on the glass, 41 to 32, and he only had four of those boards.
To make matters worse, this was all happening against the Knicks, the team he helped pull out of the gutter during his five years in New York. The team that traded him away just days after team officials showed up at a ceremony honoring Randle’s $1.3 million in donations to help build a new school in the Bronx. The team that must remind him, basketball is a business.
He was also getting thoroughly outplayed by Karl-Anthony Towns, the player for whom he and Donte DiVincenzo were traded just before training camp began last season. With several key Knicks sitting out, including the group’s captain, Jalen Brunson, Towns had put on a show in the arena he once called home. He had 31 points and eight rebounds to keep New York within striking distance, down just six points entering the fourth.
Moments of high pressure and struggle in the past would often doom Randle. He could be moody at times and have difficulty pulling himself out of tail spins.
“I haven’t been great at that in my career,” Randle said. “I put so much into the game and work really hard, so you kind of become a perfectionist, mentally, and for me that’s always been tough.”
Out of the claustrophobia of the Big Apple, Randle has a newfound serenity in Minnesota. It has allowed him to weather the storms of a game in a different way, a way that was clear during the fourth quarter of a 115-104 victory.
He re-entered the game two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter with the Wolves up by five, still in danger of dropping another game to a short-handed opponent. But Randle got the ball and drove straight through Towns’ chest to score on a layup, then flexed to the crowd.
3️⃣0️⃣!!!!!!
⭐️ » https://t.co/VuEtRp5ZH8 pic.twitter.com/abtdC9bkmT
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) December 24, 2025
It may have seemed like an unnecessary celebration for a player struggling to that degree, but for Randle, it was a sign he was just getting started. He didn’t give in to the game, he adapted to it. He didn’t let the clanked shots derail him. He put his shoulder down and went to work.
“He was just aggressive,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “He was just taking it right to us. We started blitzing Edwards, and they basically just gave him the ball and he put his head down and he attacked our chests.”
Randle scored 17 of his 25 points in the final quarter, hitting 7 of 9 shots without taking a 3 and making all three free throws to propel the Wolves (20-10) to their 10th victory in the last 12 games.
There was a time when Randle wanted to show the Knicks what they gave up on. When the Knicks and Wolves met for the first time after the trade nearly one year ago to the date, Randle chucked up eight of the Wolves’ first 12 shots. But he said he is past that now.
For him, Tuesday night was more a statement of where he is now than a rebuke of where he was before.
“I’m over it,” he said. “I had a great time in New York, accomplished a lot of great things. The city was great to me, but I’m happy to be here in Minnesota, playing in front of the fans every day, being a part of this team.
“I’m home. Where I’m at is home. So I think I’ve kind of got past that, and I’m just happy where I am now.”
Towns knows what Randle is feeling. He spent his first nine years in Minnesota, helping the Wolves gravitate from perennial lottery team to Western Conference contender.
More than a year removed from the trade, Towns remains emotional in Minneapolis. He, too, still calls the town his home.
“I left my heart, my soul here in Minnesota,” he said, a statement reminiscent of one that ran in The Athletic last week, though that quote was from Wolves legend Kevin Garnett.
Towns understood the importance of the organization finally deciding to retire Garnett’s number. At Tuesday morning’s shootaround, he called it “a long time coming” and campaigned for Garnett to receive a statue outside the arena, as well.
Even 15 months after the trade, after a run to the Eastern Conference finals with the Knicks, and even after his first initial return to Minnesota went swimmingly — a 31-point, 20-rebound performance in a blowout Knicks victory last season — re-entering Target Center has him off-kilter.
“It’s weird being on this side, to be thinking about talking about the Timberwolves as a foe, an opponent,” Towns said. “Like I said, I left my heart here. It’s like home to me. So It hurts when you come home and you’re the opponent. It’s a weird feeling.”
Towns wasn’t just the opponent Tuesday. He was the main target.
The Knicks were without Brunson, All-Defensive wing OG Anunoby and sparkplug guard Miles “Deuce” McBride. A game after going for only two points during a win over the Miami Heat, tied for the worst scoring performance of Towns’ career, the offense fell to him.
“I knew what the situation was,” he said. “I knew that the ball would find me more today.”
It did.
Towns throttled downhill for much of the first half. When he’s at his best, Towns is one of the league’s strongest 7-foot drivers. But he also has a tendency to throw an elbow here, a forearm there. That’s one reason he leads the NBA in offensive fouls, a habit that led to him eventually fouling out Tuesday with under a minute to go.
“He’s a walking double-double,” Brown said. “He just has to continue to try to not pick up cheap fouls.”
Brown, in his first year with the Knicks, represents the sixth time in Towns’ 11-year career that he’s played for a new coach. The five-time All-Star has spent the season learning a new offensive system, one that emphasizes motion and speed more than the previous attack did. At times, like early in Tuesday’s game, he’s dominated. At others, like over the weekend against Miami, he’s gotten lost.
He was practically all the Knicks had against the Timberwolves, and that was nearly enough. He finished with 40 points on 14-for-24 shooting, including three 3-pointers, and grabbed 13 rebounds.
3️⃣2️⃣➕1️⃣
vote KAT an nba all-star starter ⭐️ https://t.co/Ov3esq1i8z pic.twitter.com/AvA9F93PFk
— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) December 24, 2025
“KAT had a great game, but (Randle) fought him enough there when they needed a bucket, they weren’t able just to get one from him,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said.
After Towns got the better of him earlier in the game, Randle essentially sealed the deal midway through the fourth when he went shoulder-to-shoulder with Towns and stole the ball away, streaking the length of the court for a dunk that put the Wolves up 12.
GOOSEBUMPS.
⭐️ » https://t.co/VuEtRp5rRA pic.twitter.com/ozjdWl0h3C
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) December 24, 2025
Towns just needed a wing man. His teammates shot just 36 percent from the field. Tyler Kolek had 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, but Towns and Josh Hart combined for 11 of New York’s 19 turnovers, which led to 22 points for Minnesota.
Anthony Edwards backed Randle’s offense with 38 points of his own. He also had four steals, part of a tenacious Wolves defense led by Rudy Gobert, who had 11 points, 16 rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
“I didn’t even know he had 40 until after the game,” Edwards said of Towns. “But he played his ass off. We all know how much of a special talent he is. I definitely wasn’t trying to match him. I was happy to see him doing his thing.”
There was plenty of love to go around on Tuesday night. Towns received a standing ovation from the crowd when he fouled out. Former teammate Mike Conley dapped him up as he left.
“For the fans to just, even after two seasons away, to respect me the way they do and to think of me so highly and to appreciate what I left on the court tonight, it means a lot,” Towns said.
Karl-Anthony Towns went for 40 in a losing effort for the Knicks. (Jesse Johnson / Imagn Images)
The kinship between Towns and Minnesota remains, but he has also acclimated well to New York. The Knicks (20-9) have the second-best record in the East, the third-highest offensive rating (121.0 points per 100 possessions) and the fourth-highest net rating (7.1) in the league.
He has embraced his “Bodega KAT” moniker and basked in the glow of Madison Square Garden while playing for the team he and his father cheered for when KAT was growing up in New Jersey. Even though he is happy and settled in with the Knicks, he hasn’t lost his connection to Minnesota.
“After the year we had last year in New York, feeling more at home, fans welcoming you in more, you could be at peace with it,” Towns said. “But it still stings when you’re not walking in this (home) locker room, come to this amazing state, the city, and realize you’re not going to the training facility anymore. You’re not making that drive in, you’re not doing all that, and now you’re in a hotel. I think it hits different.”
Randle has his own new nickname in Minnesota: “Goosebumps.” It was bestowed upon him by the “Crunch Wears No Pants” crew, who host an irreverent Wolves podcast, and it has gone mainstream enough for Randle’s Basketball Reference page to include it in his bio. The team plays Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps” anthem when Randle makes a big play.
Most importantly, the comfort Randle feels here has helped him address what had been a weakness in his game.
“Being able to shake off the poor start and play inspired basketball and really be the guy who turns the game around in the fourth or seals it in a lot of ways,” Finch said, “I was proud of him tonight.”