The Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets meet Friday at Toyota Center with both teams still fighting for playoff positioning in the Western Conference. Houston is 51-29 and holds fifth place, while Minnesota sits sixth at 47-33, so the injury report matters on both sides.
Minnesota’s biggest name on the report is Anthony Edwards, who is questionable with right knee injury maintenance. The Timberwolves also ruled out Rudy Gobert for rest, along with Bones Hyland, Joe Ingles, and Julius Randle, while Naz Reid is questionable with right shoulder injury maintenance.
Ayo Dosunmu is available for Minnesota, which gives the Wolves at least one rotation piece cleared as they try to rebound from Wednesday’s 120-132 loss at Orlando. Before that, Minnesota beat Indiana 124-104, and the Wolves split the season series with Houston at 1-1 after each team won at home.
The status of Edwards looms largest because he leads Minnesota at 28.9 points per game and has been the engine of the offense all season.
Houston enters the game with its own frontcourt questions. Steven Adams is out with a left ankle surgery recovery, Fred VanVleet is out with a right knee ACL repair, and Tari Eason is questionable with an illness.
Even with those absences, the Rockets have been in good form, beating Philadelphia 113-102 on Thursday and Phoenix 119-105 on Tuesday. Kevin Durant is averaging 25.9 points, Amen Thompson is at 18.0 points, and Alperen Sengun is putting up 20.3 points and 6.2 assists, which gives Houston a strong base if Eason is unavailable.
