The Lakers singled out one new Timberwolves player during their NBA season opener: Julius Randle.
The ex-Knick was the target of the Lakers’ offense as he was constantly hunted on defense whether he was guarding star forward Anthony Davis or fellow starter Rui Hachimura.
Hachimura said after the game that the team strategized their offense around his defensive deficiencies.
“We talked about Julius Randle,” Hachimura said after the game, according to The Athletic. “He sometimes is just standing and stuff. So we talked about, we got to kind of use that.”
Randle admitted his lack of defensive prowess on Tuesday.
He ended the game with 16 points on 5-for-10 shooting, nine rebounds and four assists in his Timberwolves debut.
“There were a couple of times [LeBron James] back-cut me and stuff like that, that can’t happen,” Randle said after the game.
James’ back cuts weren’t the only problem for Randle.
Davis went for 36 points and 16 rebounds in 38 minutes as the Lakers defeated the Timberwolves 110-103.
Hachimura also looked excellent, scoring 18 points after he averaged 13.6 points in 2023.
Randle had the second-worst defensive rating of any starter in the game behind Austin Reaves, according to the NBA’s on-ball defense stats.
Randle’s defense was a major question before being shipped out by the Knicks front office along with guard Donte DiVincenzo as part of the trade for center Karl-Anthony Towns.
In 2021, Randle called his defense “pretty good” despite advanced analytics saying the polar opposite and that the Knicks were a better team with him off the court.
Randle and DiVincenzo will have a big task ahead of them as they look to find some defensive consistency.