Timberwolves playing through pain in stretch run of NBA season

TORONTO – Naz Reid played through a re-aggravation a foot injury Friday night against Dallas.

Anthony Edwards has battled left knee tendinopathy and only missed a handful of games because of it.

You can see Jarred Vanderbilt at times attending to a left thigh contusion that caused him to miss some games recently, while last week Karl-Anthony Towns showed up to his postgame press conference in Dallas with what seemed like a whole roll of bandages wrapped around his right arm to help heal his forearm contusion.

As the season winds down, the Timberwolves are still chasing the No. 6 seed to avoid the play-in tournament. NBA players will tell you nobody is ever 100% physically as the season goes along, and the Wolves are living up to that mantra, with players fighting through pain and injury to help in the playoff chase.

"It's just that time of the year," Vanderbilt said. "I feel like everybody's banged up. Seventy-plus games in, everybody on every team probably has something that's nagging. But it's the time of year that's close to the finish line. Just try to push through and do proper treatment and prepare the right way and take care of my body in the process."

At this time of the year though, the Wolves may have to make a calculation with some players. The postseason beckons and despite their intention to get the No. 6 seed, they remain two games back of Denver. It will still be an uphill climb to catch the Nuggets, even with a matchup on tap in Denver Friday night. These next two games against Toronto and the Nuggets could determine if the Wolves have a legitimate shot of getting to sixth.

If they fall further behind, perhaps some of the ailing Wolves can take time to rest with the play-in around the corner. Unless that happens, however, the players are pushing themselves to play.

"You want to be 100%, but it's more about being 100% mentally," Towns said. "... Just play 100% mentally though. If we can do that, we'll fix a lot of holes that physically we may not be able to do at the best of our ability."

As for those players who aren't playing, Jaden McDaniels remains out because of a high left ankle sprain and is unlikely to play in any of the remaining three games of this road trip while Malik Beasley (left ankle) might be out for a little while longer.

When asked how Beasley was progressing, coach Chris Finch said, "He's tough, but he's not anywhere close."

Finch said the medical and performance staff isn't going to let a player play in a game if there's a risk of making an injury worse. Players can play through an injury if the issue is simply one of managing the pain or discomfort.

"I think we just both come to an agreement with how they feel and how I feel and we'll either meet somewhere in the middle or go either way," Reid said.

On a positive note for the Wolves, Towns said he has felt as good as he has at this point in the season since his rookie year. Edwards said Sunday his knee was feeling "better than ever" while Vanderbilt feels "a lot better" than he did recently.

"We're not going to ever put our players in harm's way," Finch said. "If our players feel like they can go and the medical and performance staff thinks they're not going to do any further damage … then we put them back in. These guys are wired to play. That's what we love about them."