Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards to miss time with knee soreness

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Timberwolves ruled out guard Anthony Edwards for Tuesday’s win over the Phoenix Suns due to right knee soreness before later announcing he would be reevaluated in one to two weeks.

The Timberwolves announced the timetable for a reevaluation after disclosing Tuesday that an MRI conducted by Dr. Craig Bennett at Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine revealed inflammation in Edwards’ right knee. The team announced that further updates on his progress will be provided when available.

Edwards’ latest setback comes at a crucial time for the sixth-place Timberwolves in the Western Conference playoff race. Phoenix sat two games behind Minnesota heading into the game, having lost two in a row on a six-game road trip, and dropped another game down with the loss. The Suns, however, still own the series tiebreaker with a 2-1 record between the teams.

“We’ve been here before,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said before Tuesday’s game. “I think it’s incredible when you think about Ant playing almost 95% of the games he’s been available to play. That’s almost unheard of. But this year we’ve been without [him] more than in the past. Just got to regroup. We’ve got to worry about playing better basketball all the way around regardless of who’s out there. And I think we don’t need one person to try to step in and fill the scoring. It’s just better if it’s dispersed throughout the lineup.”

Finch said the decision to sit Edwards was “well above my pay grade,” adding that the decision was made after consultation with “the medical performance staff, team of doctors, talking to his people and everything.”

Minnesota, meanwhile, had dropped four of its past five, including Sunday’s loss at Oklahoma City in which the Timberwolves committed 25 turnovers — their second most in a game this season — as Edwards contributed 19 points on 6-of-17 shooting. Edwards attempted only one field goal in the fourth quarter of the loss and appeared to be laboring down the stretch due to the sore right knee.

Edwards, 24, leads the Timberwolves in scoring this season, averaging 29.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 49.2% from the field and 40.2% from 3-point range.

He’s been an iron man for most of his NBA career, missing only nine games combined in the three seasons before this one. However, this season he has already missed 10 contests and has only 57 qualifying games for end-of-season awards because he played only three minutes in an Oct. 26 game vs. the Indiana Pacers. Edwards can miss just six more of the Wolves’ 14 games remaining before being disqualified for awards.

Minnesota’s matchup against the Suns is the first of a back-to-back set that continues Wednesday with the Timberwolves hosting the Utah Jazz.