{"id":66410,"date":"2024-03-07T09:50:39","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:50:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=66410"},"modified":"2024-03-07T10:13:23","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T15:13:23","slug":"nba-news-minnesota-timberwolves-star-suffers-devastating-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/07\/nba-news-minnesota-timberwolves-star-suffers-devastating-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA News: Minnesota Timberwolves Star Suffers Devastating Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first seed in the Western Conference just got some bad news. On Thursday morning, The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania revealed that the Minnesota Timberwolves&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/townska01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> will be out indefinitely, after a diagnosis revealed a torn meniscus in his left knee.<\/p>\n<p>Towns had missed just three games this season, and was only expected to be dealing with &#8220;left knee soreness&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2>NBA News: Minnesota Timberwolves Star Suffers Devastating Injury<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Just in: Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee and is out indefinitely, sources tell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JlPe73PnN9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JlPe73PnN9<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1765740182198722833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Karl-Anthony Towns in 2023-24<\/h3>\n<p>Towns&#8217; contributions to the Timberwolves&#8217; success this season cannot be understated. The 28 year-old has meshed perfectly with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/goberru01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rudy Gober<\/a>t and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/edwaran01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Anthony Edwards<\/a>, forming one of the most formidable all-around trios in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>The former Kentucky star earned All-Star honors for the second time in his career. He is averaging 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, and three assists per game.<\/p>\n<p>The sharpshooting big man is also connecting on 42.3% of his 5.3 three-point attempts per game: a career-best.<\/p>\n<h3>Karl-Anthony Towns&#8217; Injury Options<\/h3>\n<p>Charania states that Towns is assessing all of his recovery options, in a last-chance bid to salvage his 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Devastating injury \u2013 and timing \u2013 for what&#8217;s been a monster season for Towns and the No. 1 seed Timberwolves (43-19). Towns has been gathering second opinions on the meniscus tear over the last 24 hours, sources said. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JSTRxeZxPs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/JSTRxeZxPs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1765740717593272563?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Meniscus tears are an unfortunately common injury among the elites of the NBA in recent years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/embiijo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joel Embiid<\/a> fell victim to the injury for the second time in his career back in January, and it is still <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/02\/27\/joel-embiid-potential-date-return-revealed-by-adrian-wojnarowski\/\" target=\"_self\">unclear whether the reigning MVP will return to the court<\/a> in time for the Philadelphia 76ers playoff run.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leonaka01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kawhi Leonard<\/a> also tore his meniscus in the 2023 playoffs, and following an offseason procedure, returned for the opening tip of the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulch01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Chris Paul<\/a>&#8216;s recovery from a meniscus tear back in 2010 was swift, as he returned to play in two months.<\/p>\n<p>Even if Towns&#8217; recovery proves as timely as Paul&#8217;s, he would only return in time for the second round of the playoffs.<\/p>\n<h3>Minnesota Timberwolves Injury Replacement<\/h3>\n<p>Minnesota is perhaps the team best-equipped to weather an injury to its star big man. In addition to Gobert, Minnesota also employs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/reidna01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Naz Reid<\/a>. The 24 year-old is one of the league&#8217;s best backup centers, if not the best.<\/p>\n<p>Reid has only played two games without Towns in 2023-24. In those contests, he averaged 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in 26 minutes per game.<\/p>\n<p>Although Reid is not as renowned of an elite floor-spacer as Towns is, he is still a dangerous threat from beyond the arc. The former LSU Tiger is shooting 41% percent on his 4.6 three-point attempts per game.<\/p>\n<h3>What&#8217;s Next for Minnesota<\/h3>\n<p>The potential loss of Towns for the remainder of the season is a massive blow to the Timberwolves&#8217; championship hopes.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota is in a battle with the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Los Angeles Clippers for the top seed in the West.<\/p>\n<p>With 20 games to go until the playoffs, Minnesota has the 11th-hardest schedule remaining in the league. This includes three matchups against the reigning champion Nuggets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first seed in the Western Conference just got some bad news. On Thursday morning, The Athletic&#8217;s Shams Charania revealed that the Minnesota Timberwolves&#8217; Karl-Anthony Towns will be out indefinitely, after a diagnosis revealed a torn meniscus in his left knee. Towns had missed just three games this season, and was only expected to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4773,"featured_media":66415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,2,21,62,3],"tags":[213,214,1881,4745,202],"class_list":["post-66410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-featured","category-timberwolves","category-nba","category-news","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-naz-reid","tag-nba-injuries","tag-nba-news"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4773"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}