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Julius Randle, Rudy Gobert mocked for lowlights against Rockets

Randle's first season with the Timberwolves isn't panning out the way Minnesota had hoped when they traded Karl-Anthony Towns.

Joe Nelson

Nov 26, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) drives around Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (30) in the first quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
Nov 26, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Houston Rockets guard Fred VanVleet (5) drives around Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle (30) in the first quarter at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
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Julius Randle said it last week: The struggling Timberwolves have to look themselves in the mirror.

Randle might want to take a look at the highlight reel from Tuesday night, when he had 21 points, six rebounds and three turnovers in an overtime loss to the Rockets. But we're not talking about his scoring highlight reel. We're talking about the lowlights that were posted on X by the self-described worldwide leader in sports fails, BricksCenter.

"No effort on D, turnover machine on O," BricksCenter posted on X along a 52-second clip of Randle's bad defense, bad passes and off-balance shots.

Notably, the clip doesn't include two woeful scoring attempts by Randle in overtime.

It was just six days ago that Randle was calling out himself and teammates, saying the Wolves had reached a low point in the season and that it was time to look in the mirror.

"I know we'll turn it around. I have faith in everybody in this locker room that we'll turn it around," Randle said, "but at this point we gotta look ourself in the mirror and decide what type of team we wanna be on a consistent basis. We've had great games, we've had not great games. Myself included. I have to look myself in the mirror and say I gotta be better."

Randle's 115.1 defensive rating is fourth worst on the Timberwolves this season, only ahead of Joe Ingles, Rob Dillingham and Josh Minott. Randle plays 34.4 minutes a game while Ingles and Minott rarely get off the bench, and Dillingham has just recently found a role in the rotation.

"I think on the ball he’s been good," head coach Chris Finch said of Randle's defense. "Off the ball, he’s been kind of inconsistent like everything else that we do right now. His rebounding numbers have been down — both he and us are kind of wondering why that is the case.”

Randle wasn't the only Wolves player to find a spot in the BricksCenter spotlight. Rudy Gobert joined him. Twice.

In this clip, BricksCenter showed Gobert getting scored on three times in overtime.

And in this clip, BricksCenter showed Rockets young star Alperen Sengun doing the "too small" gesture after scoring on Gobert.

It's been an embarrassing 8-9 start to the season for Minnesota, and getting viral attention for negative highlights certainly doesn't help change the narrative.

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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

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