Karl-Anthony Towns will go under the knife.
The Timberwolves star will undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday night.
The All-Star will miss at least four weeks, the Timberwolves said. That would mean, at minimum, Towns will be sidelined for at least 13 more games — the majority of Minnesota’s remaining regular-season schedule.
Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns is set to undergo sugery. USA TODAY Sports via Reuters ConHe did not play in the Timberwolves’ 113-111 road win over the Pacers on Thursday night.
The Timberwolves revealed after the game that an MRI exam, performed Wednesday, showed the meniscus tear, confirming the ESPN report.
“Further updates will be provided when available,” the team said.
Towns will be re-evaluated in a month, and the expectation is that he will be back sometime early in the NBA playoffs.
Towns was not with the team in Indianapolis, The Athletic reported.
There is a little more than a month remaining in the Timberwolves’ season, and they’re the top team in the Western Conference.
Towns has played a large part in making that happen.
Karl-Anthony Towns has been a major factor in the Timberwolves’ success. APHe’s averaged 22.1 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range in 60 games this season.
Towns made his fourth NBA All-Star appearance this season, and he proved what an asset that he can be when he’s healthy.
This comes one year after Towns missed 51 games with a calf injury.
The injury comes at a tough time, as the T-Wolves are jockeying for position with the Thunder, Nuggets and Clippers, with all four teams separated by only three games.
The Timberwolves came away with the close win, and they now have just 19 games left on the calendar before the playoffs begin.
How much of an impact Towns’ absence has on the rest of this season will start to become more clear, but with a strong season, Minnesota has positioned itself in a place where it would take a massive collapse to fall far enough that it would be in the play-in round.
Minnesota coach Chris Finch said he believes the Timberwolves can adjust to a stint without Towns.
“It’s not a plug-in one person to fill Karl’s role kind of situation,” he said. “What I love about our team is that we have a multitude of options. We can go a lot of different ways based on matchups on any given night. We’ve started different guys through the season anyway.”
— with AP
