However, during the second period of Saturday’s game four against the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves standout player Anthony Edwards was carried off the court after he appeared to hyperextend his left knee.
This happened when less than three minutes were left until halftime.
Edwards attempted to block a breakaway layup by Denver Nuggets’ Cameron Johnson, and as he landed, it seemed that his left knee buckled beneath him.
Anthony instantly grabbed it, slapped the court out of frustration and the trainers ran over to check on him. After helping him stand up, he was unable to walk and the trainers led him to the locker room.
As the second half commenced, Edwards was nowhere in sight on the bench, and he did not even make an appearance on the court.
There were reports coming in from the sidelines stating that he was still undergoing evaluation, but there had been no official announcement of his condition from the Timberwolves.
The timing couldn’t be worse for the Timberwolves, who were dealing with injuries already.
Edwards had been battling with a right knee problem for much of the series, having been listed as questionable before the playoffs began.
Edwards had missed 11 of Minnesota’s last 14 games before the playoffs because of patellofemoral pain syndrome in his right knee and came back for the first game of the playoffs.
In the first half, Edwards only scored five points on 1 of 8 shooting and pulled down three rebounds in 18 minutes.
In the series thus far, Edwards had been averaging 23 points per game but struggled significantly offensively against Memphis, shooting just 39% from the floor and 25% from beyond the arc compared to his regular season averages of 48.9% and 39.9%, respectively.
This wasn’t the only injury Minnesota had to deal with in the contest.
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The Timberwolves lost another key player when guard Donte DiVincenzo went down with a non contact lower leg injury in the first quarter.
For a team that had a 2-1 advantage going into Saturday’s game, this was an unfortunate turn of events.
Even with the two back to back blows, Minnesota managed to keep up.
As of the moment this article was being written, the Timberwolves took a slim 80-76 lead into the fourth quarter.
The team was supported by some excellent contributions from its bench players, who helped the team outscore their opponents bench 36-10 when the game entered halftime.
Game 5 will take place on Monday night in Denver, giving them just a day off to rest.
How much the Timberwolves can recover and whether or not they’ll need to continue without Edwards in Game 5 would likely determine how the whole series pans out.
