Draymond Green had to give credit where credit was due.
After Julius Randle and the Minnesota Timberwolves got the best of Green and the Warriors in the Western Conference semifinals, ending their 2024-25 NBA season, the four-time NBA champion tipped his hat to Randle’s playoff performance.
“I think that was my [31st] playoff series. The only other playoff series where I felt like I lost my matchup like that I didn’t completely dominate my matchup and take over my matchup, the only other series in my career where I feel like I lost my matchup was Toronto,” Green said on “The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis.” “I feel like I lost my matchup to Pascal Siakam. Game 1, he crushed me. Game 2, I stifled him. Game 3, he was on. Game 4, I had a better game. But I felt like I lost my matchup in that series.
“And this series also reminds me of that series where I don’t feel like I lost my matchup — I lost my matchup. Julius was incredible. He played great basketball. Honestly, some of the shots he was taking were shots you want him to take, and he made them. He made the shots. At the end of the day, the game comes down to shotmaking and he made the shots. So I got to give Ju a lot of credit.”
Randle is in the midst of his first season with the Timberwolves after being traded from the New York Knicks to Minnesota as part of a three-team trade that also sent Karl-Anthony Towns to New York.
During the regular season, he averaged 18.7 points on 48.5 shooting from the field in 32.3 minutes through 69 games (69 starts).
After the Timberwolves beat LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the first round of the playoffs, Randle came up big-time for Minnesota against Golden State.
Randle, mostly defended by Green over the five-game series, averaged 25.2 points on 53.3 percent shooting from the field, with 6.6 rebounds, 7.4 assists in 37.6 minutes against the Warriors.
Afterward, Green had no choice but to tip his hat.
Respect.
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