INDIANAPOLIS — Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns won’t play Thursday night at Indiana because of a sore left knee.
The bigger concern for coach Chris Finch is how long the Timberwolves might be without their best player.
Hours after The Athletic and ESPN reported Towns has a torn meniscus and was mulling options for treatment, Finch would neither confirm the diagnosis nor provide a timetable for Anthony-Towns’ return.
“No further update or information,” Finch said when asked about additional details of the injury.
The ninth-year forward has helped the Timberwolves enter Thursday night with a share of the Western Conference’s top seed by averaging 22.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game while making a career-best 42.3% from 3-point range.
He had missed only one previous game because of injury this season, for left knee soreness on Dec. 23, and showed no obvious signs of trouble in a victory Monday against Portland - although he played only 21 minutes, his second-lowest total this season.
Losing Anthony-Towns will put more of a scoring burden on All-Star Anthony Edwards and also elevate the role off the bench of Naz Reid, who is the primary backup to Towns, as well as center Rudy Gobert.
But Finch believes the Timberwolves can adjust.
“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.”
First up, is a Pacers team that leads the NBA in scoring at 123.5 points, a team Finch said he enjoys watching - when he’s not on the opposite bench.
But Indiana also will be short-handed Thursday.
Coach Rick Carlisle announced starting guard Bennedict Mathurin will miss at least four games with a shoulder injury he suffered in Tuesday’s victory at Dallas. Carlisle said Mathurin would be evaluated next week and that he’s hoping the injury is not serious and will not become an issue as the Pacers try to reclaim a spot in the Eastern Conference’s top six. Indiana started Thursday a half-game behind No. 7 Philadelphia and one game behind No. 6 Miami.
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