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Anthony Edwards, Julius Randle achieve feat Ant/KAT duo never did

The Edwards and Randle duo looks like it could be fun to watch this year.

Will Ragatz

Oct 24, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox (5) steals the ball from Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center.
Oct 24, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox (5) steals the ball from Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards (5) during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center. / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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In their second game as a duo, Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle achieved a feat that Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns never pulled off in over 200 games together.

In a thrilling 117-115 win over the Kings on Thursday night, Edwards and Randle became the first pair of Timberwolves teammates to score 30+ points and hit 5+ threes in the same game.

It's an arbitrary stat, no doubt; Towns hit five threes and Edwards hit four in the 2021 game against the Suns where they both had more than 40 points. But it also shows how exciting the Edwards-Randle duo could be this season. Last year, in 75 games together between the regular season and playoffs, Ant and KAT scored 30 in the same game just twice.

Towns is generally considered a better player than Randle, but their career track records are fairly similar — they've both made two All-NBA teams. What's interesting about the swap is the ways in which they're different. Towns is a much better shooter, although Randle did have an outlier season where he shot 41 percent from three a few years ago. Randle's more of a bully on the interior, a more proven playmaker with the ball in his hands, and perhaps a bit more aggressive with his shot than Towns.

In Sacramento, Randle bounced back from a rough Wolves debut with a great first half, scoring 22 points on 8/10 shooting and 4/5 from deep before the break. He finished with a team-high 33 on just 17 shots. Edwards then took over, scoring 23 of his 32 points in the second half. He wasn't overly efficient (10 of 24), but he made a bunch of winning plays, including several clutch buckets and the game-winning free throws. Edwards also showed some exciting playmaking flashes.

"We told him this morning, don’t fit around us, we gon' fit around you, and he showed us today," Edwards said of Randle in a postgame interview. "I feel like with Julius being himself, we gon' be trouble."

"Give Ant the ball," Randle said when asked about the keys to making late-game offense work with this team. "Give him the ball, let him make plays. If they double-team him, I'm there for him. We got outlets around him. If they don't, good luck."

When both guys are on, this duo will be quite fun to watch on the offensive end of the floor. Their chemistry only figures to grow over the course of the season, too.

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Will Ragatz
WILL RAGATZ

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