Anthony Edwards Injury Timeline: When Star Can Return to Timberwolves After Suffering Knee Injury

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The Timberwolves just need to win one more game to advance to the NBA conference semifinals as Minnesota leads the Nuggets 3–1 in their first-round series. However, if the Timberwolves do advance, they’ll be playing without their star Anthony Edwards for a few weeks.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Sunday that Edwards suffered a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee on Saturday night and will miss multiple weeks. The good news is that Edwards avoided sustaining any ligament damage.
Edwards left Saturday night’s game, in which the Timberwolves won 112–96 over Denver, in the second quarter. The Minnesota star jumped to block a shot but fell to the ground hard. Edwards rolled around on the ground holding his knee before he was helped off the court. He was ruled out for the remainder of the contest.
Edwards wasn’t the only player to sustain an injury on Saturday night. Guard Donte DiVincenzo suffered a torn right Achilles tendon, putting him out for the remainder of the postseason and for part, if not most, of the 2026-27 season. It was a brutal night for Minnesota, but bench player Ayo Dosunmu really stepped up by scoring a whopping 43 points with five three-pointers made. He’ll be a standout to continue watching as the Timberwolves progress in the playoffs.
When Anthony Edwards could return to play
First of all, the Timberwovles need to beat the Nuggets and officially move on in the postseason. If that happens, then here’s an estimated timeline of when Edwards could return to the court.
Depending how the rest of the NBA first-round series continue, these contests could keep going until Sunday, May 3 if Game 7s are needed. That’s a week away, meaning the conference semifinals are likely to begin the week of Monday, May 4. Edwards will likely miss all of that round of the playoffs, depending how many games the series goes to for the Timberwolves.
Each round of the NBA playoffs can take about two weeks, give or take, if the series goes to seven games. There’s a chance if Minnesota ends up in a seven-game series that Edwards could return before the conference semifinals end. Otherwise, he’ll be hoping his team advances so he could return for the conference finals.
It’s worth noting that Edwards’s season could be over depending how his Timberwolves do in the coming weeks.
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Madison Williams is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, where she specializes in tennis but covers a wide range of sports from a national perspective. Before joining SI in 2022, Williams worked at The Sporting News. Having graduated from Augustana College, she completed a master’s in sports media at Northwestern University.