Archives For Injuries

Kevin Love will have knee surgery and is done for the season

Zach Harper —  April 9, 2013 — 5 Comments

LoveMonster

We were hoping to see a glimpse of Kevin Love with this core of a surging Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Andrei Kirilenko, Chase Budinger, and friends so that we — and more importantly management — would have a good idea of what this team looked like when everybody was on the court this season. The ideal lineup of Rubio-Chase-AK-Love-Pek played exactly zero minutes and zero seconds on the floor together this season, which makes it hard to evaluate what they need to know heading into this offseason.

Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen at all. Love is going to have knee surgery to clean up some scar tissue and that will keep him out of action for about a month. Considering there are only eight days left in the season, math tells me he won’t be back before the game against San Antonio on the 17th. From the team:  Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries
permalink

Injury roundup with good and sad news

Zach Harper —  March 16, 2013 — 3 Comments

Love Plunge

Let’s go with the sad news first, that way I can tear us down before I build us back up! Strategy!

Kevin Love told Jerry Zgoda that he knows missing the rest of the season is a real possibility. He’s able to admit that to himself, knowing that while he definitely wants to get back onto the court for the team, he still has to listen to the doctor and wait for clearance with the clock on the season ticking away.  Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries , , , ,
permalink

Lakers 116, Timberwolves 94: Change your face, be happy

Zach Harper —  March 1, 2013 — 4 Comments

KobeDunk

I’ve got a big three-part breakdown of Ricky Rubio starting Friday, and it’s a lot of writing so I don’t want to put too much thought into this blowout loss. Plus, how many ways can you state that the Wolves lost another key player to injury, tried to fight the best they could, Ricky Rubio played really well and encouraging basketball, and it wasn’t even close to enough to earn a victory.

Nikola Pekovic went down with an abdominal strain and found himself out the rest of the game with the ailment. He played nine minutes in the game and then for the remaining 39 minutes of action against a surging Western Conference team, Minnesota found themselves once again without four of their five ideal starters. Kevin Love was out, obviously. Chase Budinger is still out, although he’s running now and will be reevaluated in two to three weeks. Andrei Kirilenko missed the game with a calf injury.

The only player there in the starting lineup and getting regular minutes is Rubio. He was spectacular with his passing for much of the game, and he even made a few jumpers. He finished two rebounds shy of a triple-double, but he wasn’t good enough to lead second and third stringers to victory on the road. Kenny Smith talked about how Rubio has to learn how to score and dominate the game in other ways.   Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Game Analysis, Injuries , ,
permalink

Malcolm Lee to have surgery: out for the year

Benjamin Polk —  January 12, 2013 — 2 Comments

Now that we’re fully into the third wave of 2012/13 Wolves injuries, Malcolm Lee whose “hyperextended knee” is a relic of the second wave, already seems like a distant memory. But he played for the Wolves this year and had a moderately positive effect on the team’s defense when he was on the floor. He was still a newcomer to the nuances of NBA team-defense, but  his length and athleticism would certainly have been of use against the likes of Greivis Vasquez and Eric Gordon. But anyway he’s not playing any more basketball this season. From the Wolves:

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that guard Malcolm Lee will undergo two surgeries next week. On Monday, January 14, Lee will undergo a right knee cartilage repair. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Jonathan Glashow at Midtown Surgical Center in New York. On Wednesday, January 16, Lee will undergo surgery on his right hip. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Lee is expected to miss the remainder of the 2012-13 NBA season.

So it looks like, in two years of NBA experience, Lee will have missed 113 out of 148 possible games because of injury. Thats a very tough start to a career.

 

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries , ,
permalink

Kevin Love is out 8-to-10 weeks with hand surgery

Zach Harper —  January 9, 2013 — 3 Comments

LoveMonster

Welp, here’s the news with Kevin Love that we already know.

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that after an examination by Dr. Andy Weiland, a hand specialist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, forward Kevin Love will require surgery to repair the third and fourth metacarpal in his right hand. He injured his hand during the third quarter of the Jan. 3 game at Denver.

Details of the surgery expected to be announced tomorrow. Love is expected to be sidelined for 8-10 weeks.

So now what? The Wolves will fight; we know that about them. This is arguably the most talented roster from top to bottom this franchise has ever seen. I don’t know if that says more about this roster or it says more about this franchise, but it would be a pretty good argument to have if you said this is 1 through 15 the best Minnesota has seen.  Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries, Kevin Love
permalink

These are the breaks: Kevin Love re-fractures his right hand

Benjamin Polk —  January 5, 2013 — Leave a comment

So here’s some fun news from the Wolves:

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) taken this afternoon at TRIA Orthopadedic Center revealed that forward Kevin Love suffered a re-fracture of his third metacarpal in his right hand. The injury occurred during the third quarter of Thursday’s game at Denver. Love will be examined by Dr. Andy Weiland, a hand specialist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, later this week. An update to Love’s status will be provided after that examination. Love initially suffered a fracture of his third and fourth metacarpal in his right hand on Oct. 17. For the season, Love has played in 18 games and leads the Wolves in scoring (18.3 ppg), rebounds (14.0 rpg) and double-doubles (14).

It bears mentioning, if only as an add-on to Zach’s excellent post from yesterday, that Love’s hand never seemed to have fully recovered from the initial injury. The strange swelling and the odd, angular way the ball came off his hand when he shot is evidence enough of that. We don’t yet know whether this injury is in any way a result of the initial break, but we do know this: the Wolves’ (and our) dreams of Love and Rubio playing together at full strength have been deferred again. Maybe this will make you feel better:

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries , , ,
permalink

Ricky Rubio will not travel out west

Benjamin Polk —  January 1, 2013 — Leave a comment

In so many ways, Ricky Rubio’s season debut against Dallas was a mirage. Forget even the idea of someone not named Adrian Peterson performing at an elite level after nearly a year of rehab. Its hard enough to get a surgically repaired knee–and the rest of the body for that matter–to get used to the rigors of the NBA season. From the AP:

Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio will not travel with the team for a two-game road trip to Utah and Denver this week because of back spasms. Rubio missed the game against Phoenix on Saturday after being unable to get his back loosened up. Coach Rick Adelman says the team is just being cautious with Rubio, who is coming back from a torn ACL in his left knee. Rubio has played in five games this season after making his debut in the middle of last month. Adelman thinks some of Rubio’s back issues could be caused by him overcompensating for a knee that has not yet gotten back to full strength. Rubio hopes to be ready to play at home on Saturday against Portland.

As we probably could have expected, this is going to be a long process.

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries , , ,
permalink

Kevin Love and his eye won’t play Sunday against the Knicks

Zach Harper —  December 22, 2012 — 5 Comments

 

LoveEyePatch

 

From the T’Wolves PR Twitter account, Kevin Love’s eye injury sustained against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night will keep him out of Sunday’s game against the New York Knicks. He’s also not flying to New York with the team.

Here’s video of the eye injury when it happened with just under two minutes remaining in the game.

Russell Westbrook definitely gets him in the left eye (you can see it best from the above angle). After the game, he said he hadn’t had it checked out yet by the medical and training staff before he talked to reporters in the locker room but was planning on doing so. Looking at his eye after the game, it looked like that map of the infection in the movie Outbreak when they’re showing how the red/affected areas (the disease) on the map spreads after 48 hours then 72 hours then a couple of weeks. Love’s eye was headed toward that “couple of weeks” map for sure.

Either Dante Cunningham or Derrick Williams will start in his place. I’d prefer Williams with Andrei Kirilenko defending Carmelo Anthony, since the Knicks like to start out pretty small. All he really has to do is stay out on shooters to begin the game and rebound the ball. It would be a nice test for his defensive awareness.

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries, Kevin Love
permalink

The pressure of learning when you should win

Zach Harper —  December 17, 2012 — 20 Comments

PekBound

The Minnesota Timberwolves are a good team.

This is fun to say. This is also weird to say. Last season, we were enjoying an incredible ride for the first 41.98 games of the campaign. Kevin Love was playing like an MVP candidate (remember when Wolves fans still liked him?), Nikola Pekovic was emerging as the Chuck Norris of the NBA, and Ricky Rubio was dancing around our hearts with his one-handed bounce passes and defensive effectiveness. They had us believing that the playoffs were a legitimate possibility because Rick Adelman was coaching three really good players and a bunch of middling role players.

Then the ACL tear happened and then the bone spurs in Pek’s ankle happened and then Love was concussed and we were left with Michael Beasley, Anthony Randolph, and a rat maze of feces the team couldn’t get out of. The lone highlight after Love’s showdown with Kevin Durant in Oklahoma City ended up being the Wolves finally winning an April game.

The fallout of the falling out of the 2011-12 season led to a huge roster overhaul. As now we see the roster before us. The crazy thing is it’s not even our complete roster. The Wolves are still missing Brandon Roy, Chase Budinger, and Malcolm Lee right now. Josh Howard is out with a hyperextended knee too. The Wolves are getting by with Andrei Kirilenko’s awesomeness, Pek coming into his own the last few games offensively and playing great defense all season, Alexey Shved proving a spark off the bench before and in the lineup now, and the Barea-Ridnour combo playing really good basketball as of late.

Continue Reading…

In 2012-13 Season, Game Preview, Injuries, Kevin Love ,
permalink

Ricky Rubio will play tonight for the Minnesota Timberwolves

Zach Harper —  December 15, 2012 — 6 Comments

Ricky’s back:

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that guard Ricky Rubio will be in uniform and is expected to make his season debut tonight when the Wolves take on the Dallas Mavericks at Target Center at 7:00 p.m.

“I’m excited to get back on the floor with my teammates and play in front of the best fans in the NBA at Target Center,” said Rubio. “After a long recovery, this is the first step in me getting back on the court and helping my teammates. Thank you to the fans for their support over the last nine months.”

This is going to be fun.

In 2012-13 Season, Injuries , ,
permalink