Julius Randle feeds off home crowd, bounces back in Wolves' Game 3 win

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle has arguably been the team's most consistent player throughout the playoffs. His first dud didn't come until Game 2 of the Western Conference finals in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Randle finished that game with just six points on 2-for-11 shooting, five rebounds and five assists, while turning it over four times. Timberwolves coach Chris Finch benched him for the fourth quarter, and he was a minus-15 in 32 minutes.

In Game 3 Saturday night, Randle barely played in the fourth quarter, but this time around, it was for different reasons. Randle and the Wolves had already built a 37-point lead in their eventual 143-101 victory at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Related: 5 things that stood out from Timberwolves' dominant Game 3 win over Thunder

Randle was a big reason why Minnesota was able to build such a commanding advantage. He finished with 24 points on 9-for-15 shooting, four rebounds, three assists, not a single turnover and a game-best plus-minus of plus-38.

"Julius was awesome," Finch said postgame Saturday. "He and I chatted this morning, and I said, 'Hey man, like you had one subpar game in the playoffs, and it just happened to be the other night. Just we're moving on.' ... I was extremely proud of his response today. He got back to doing exactly what we needed him to do, which is scoring and playmaking. He only had three assists, but he did a really good job of like setting up a lot of things out there."

Finch said Randle's fourth-quarter benching wasn't anything to do with his game. The Wolves were down, he needed to try something to get them back in the game and Finch went with a different look. One thing Finch hasn't been afraid to do this season is close with a different lineup than he starts with. He said Randle understood and accepted that, though it doesn't mean Randle wasn't frustrated with it all. He's a competitor who wants to play, not sit in the biggest moments of the year.

"Me and Finch been through all the ups and downs this season. He knows who I am, I know who he is," Randle said. "... I trust him to do what's best for the team at all times; I know he doesn't have any ill intent. Obviously, I want to play, but for me, it's about the bounce-back and how you come back the next game. I just wanted to come out aggressive. It's not really that they did anything different or myself, I just wanted to be aggressive."

Randle came out aggressive, making a pair of jumpers for Minnesota's first four points of the contest, and bounced back in a big way, the main difference being his intention. A couple other changes: The warmup playlist on Saturday featured a lot of Jeezy — "I just knew I had to get it out the mud, so he put on Jeezy and it just got my mind right," he said — and the Wolves were playing in front of their home crowd. Randle got a boost from the 19,112 fans in attendance at Target Center.

In a notable moment, Randle yelled, "We're home now," as he walked to the bench after a Thunder timeout.