Breaking news coming out of the Minnesota Timberwolves camp as star guard Anthony Edwards is set to be out for multiple weeks following his left knee injury in the second quarter of their Game 4 win against the Denver Nuggets on Saturday. ESPN’s Shams Charania broke the news earlier today stating that Edwards was diagnosed with a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee after landing awkwardly on it trying to block a shot from Nuggets forward Cam Johnson. The Timberwolves also reported that Edwards avoided any sort of ligament damage, which should come as a major relief to Edwards and Timberwolves fans as a whole.
Edwards logged 18 minutes in Game 4, shooting 1-for-8 from the field, scoring five points and grabbing three rebounds before heading to the locker room. Per Shams, Edwards is expected to begin the rehab process immediately but the Timberwolves seem prepared to finish the rest of their first round series without him and other high-scoring guard Donte DiVincenzo who suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon on Saturday as well.
In his four games in this series, Edwards averaged 18.5 points per game on 35.8% shooting from the field and 25.8% shooting from three in 29.8 minutes per game. While he has not been scoring the ball as many have grown accustomed to, mainly due to prior knee problems that plagued him in the back half of the regular season, Edwards is still the most explosive player in this series and always requires constant attention. Even on a not fully healthy left knee in Game 3, Edwards still dropped 30 points in a 119-114 win over Denver that seemed to shift the momentum clearly into Minnesota’s favor. While Edwards and DiVincenzo are out for the rest of this series at the very least, Ayo Dosunmu picked up the slack in Game 4 with a monster 43 point performance in 42 minutes played. All eyes will be on Dosunmu in a pivotal Game 5 in Denver on Monday night as the Wolves look to close out the Nuggets in five but it will take much more than a big game from Dosunmu to knock out Nikola Jokic and company, especially in their own building.
