Five takeaways from Timberwolves' emphatic Game 2 win over Warriors

The Timberwolves took care of business on Thursday night at Target Center, evening up their second-round series against the Steph Curry-less Warriors at one game apiece with a 117-93 victory.

They were up by 14 after the opening quarter, led by as many as 22 in the first half, and were able to respond when Golden State cut the lead to seven in the third quarter.

The night ended with Chris Finch getting to empty his bench and play the reserves, with the focus now shifting towards Game 3 in the Bay Area on Saturday night.

Let's go over five takeaways from Game 2.

Randle shines as offensive hub After a relatively quiet opening game, in which the Wolves' entire offense struggled, Julius Randle was excellent on Thursday.

He was the hub of Minnesota's attack and made good decisions on that end all night long, whether it was scoring or dishing to an open teammate.

Randle made 10 of his 17 shots and led all scorers with 24 points.

He also recorded 11 assists (a season high and playoff career high) with just two turnovers, and he was three rebounds away from a triple-double after calling himself out for only grabbing three boards in the opener.

He's the first Wolves player with a 20-5-10 playoff game since Kevin Garnett in 2004.

When Randle is flirting with a triple-double, the Wolves' offense can be dangerous even on nights where Anthony Edwards isn't going off.

He's so good at using bully ball to get to the rim or hit short jumpers out of isolation post-ups, and when the defense helps on his drives, he's able to kick it out to shooters.

Eight of Randle's 11 assists resulted in three-pointers.

"Great all-around game from him, just what we needed," Finch said.

"We've said that when he's playing that way, it takes us to another level.

Guys obviously made shots, but we generated really good shots, and that's they key." There was a moment in the third period where Finch took Randle out of the game due to a defensive lapse.

But outside of that, he was probably the best player on the floor in Game 2.

Seven games into these playoffs, Randle is averaging an efficient 22/5/5 and rewriting the narratives.

Shots start to fall The Wolves were due for some long-range shots to drop in this one.

After finishing fourth in the league in three-point percentage during the regular season, they went ice cold in the final game of the Lakers series and the first game against the Warriors.

Across those two games, they were just 12 for 76 (15.8 percent) from deep.

That seemed unlikely to continue for a third consecutive contest.

On Thursday, the Wolves drilled 16 of their 37 threes (43.2 percent).

Outside of non-shooter Rudy Gobert, each of the seven players in their rotation made at least one, with five players hitting multiple.

Edwards, the NBA's leader in made threes this season, was 2 for 4 after going 1 for 16 in the last two games.

Naz Reid and Mike Conley hit some timely shots.

But the biggest development was that Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Donte DiVincenzo finally got back on track.

They had been ice cold (combined 12 for 63) from long range through the first six games of the postseason.

In Game 2, NAW was 4 for 6 from deep and scored 20 points off the bench, while DiVincenzo added three triples of his own.

"Nickeil was huge," Finch said.

"We really needed this game from him.

We challenged him yesterday to be able to contribute like this, like he has all season." Ant's rim struggles continue This was another fairly underwhelming scoring outing from Edwards, who was so non-existent in the first half of the Game 1 loss.

He definitely didn't play poorly: 20 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and a block on close to 50 percent shooting.

But as one of the league's elite scorers, he hasn't truly gotten into a rhythm like he did in Games 3 and 4 against the Lakers.

It's only a matter of time until that happens again.

The primary issue for Edwards so far in this series has been finishing at the basket.

He missed several contested layups early in Game 1, then went 4 for 9 at the rim in Game 2.

There were multiple other occasions where he drew a foul call but wasn't able to complete the and-one finish through contact.

Edwards also fell back into his habit of complaining to the referees when he didn't get a whistle.

Nonetheless, Finch was happy with his superstar's night, which included an injury scare that he was able to quickly shake off.

"I thought he was good," Finch said.

"He stayed patient.

They threw a bunch of different looks at him, whether they trapped him, whether they box and-one'd him at one point, they switched heavy on him, they tried to send him to certain parts of the floor.

He stayed aggressive getting downhill, got to the free-throw line a little bit.

Shot the ball well when it came to him.

I thought he played a really good game offensively, within the flow of what we were trying to do.

He had five assists but probably could've had some more." McDaniels was a two-way menace It shouldn't be overlooked that Jaden McDaniels played an outstanding game for Minnesota.

He drilled a three to open the scoring and made 7 of his 10 shots on the night for 16 points.

Just as importantly, he showed why he's one of the better wing defenders in the NBA.

McDaniels had three steals and three blocks another feat that hasn't been done by a Wolves player in the postseason since '04 Garnett.

He also played a major role in limiting Jimmy Butler, Buddy Hield, and Brandin Podziemski Golden State's top three scorers without Curry to 43 points on 15-of-36 shooting.

When McDaniels is impacting things at a high level on both ends of the floor, it raises the Wolves' floor and ceiling quite a bit.

Warriors try everything without Steph, to no avail This was the Warriors' first full game in the series without Curry, who is so crucial to everything they do on the offensive end.

Without his superstar, Steve Kerr tried a bit of everything, giving 14 different players minutes in the first half.

Some of those didn't work out well, like Quinten Post going -13 in the first three minutes and then never playing again.

Pat Spencer and Moses Moody also struggled to get much going.

But Kerr also found a spark from Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis, who combined for 33 points and 11 boards on 14-of-17 shooting.

Ultimately, despite giving the Wolves a bit of a scare in the third quarter, the Warriors just didn't have nearly enough juice without Curry.

And because Curry seems unlikely to return before Game 6 at the earliest, Golden State might be in trouble .

They're going to need a lot more from the aforementioned Butler/Hield/Podziemski trio.

Butler, in particular, will probably need to take more than 13 shot attempts moving forward if the Warriors are going to keep this series going long enough for a possible Curry return.

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