Playoff run-stunting injuries nothing new to Minnesota sports

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Apr 30, 2026 - 20:37

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Playoff run-stunting injuries nothing new to Minnesota sports

The complexion of Minnesota’s playoff run changed on Saturday when, in the first half of Game 4, the Timberwolves lost both Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo to injuries.

DiVincenzo’s season ended with a ruptured Achilles, while Edwards’ return is still a week-plus away, and possibly more, as he recovers from a knee hyperextension and a bone bruise.

Heading into Game 4, the Timberwolves had the look of a dangerous team peaking at just the right time.

Now, even should they advance, their championship hopes are on life support.

They aren’t alone. The Lakers are in the same boat with Luka Doncic. Golden State’s dreams went up in smoke when Steph Curry pulled his hamstring in Game 1 of last year’s conference semifinals.

Unfortunately, these things happen. Late-season injuries turn title opportunities on their heads. They have throughout Minnesota sports history. Here are some of the more prominent campaign-altering catastrophes (note: The lists only include injuries that took place during the postseason or in the final weeks of the regular season):

Collier’s ankle injury

Alyssa Thomas’ controversial steal at the end of Game 3 of last year’s WNBA semifinals ended not only that game, but Minnesota’s title hopes. Because the play featured a collision with Minnesota star forward Napheesa Collier, who went down to the floor with an injury that knocked her out of Game 4, in which the Lynx were eliminated.

Later reporting revealed Collier tore ligaments in her ankle, and wouldn’t have been able to return even had the Lynx extended their playoff run.

Erikkson Ek’s broken leg

The Wild were a 103-point team during the 2022-23 campaign, which earned them a first-round series against the Stars. But with just a few games remaining in the regular season, Joel Erikkson Ek went down with a leg injury after blocking a shot.

The center missed the remainder of the regular season and the first two games of the playoff series. He tried to give it a go in Game 3, but lasted only 19 seconds before exiting the game and series prior to having surgery on his broken leg.

Minnesota lost the series in six games.

McDaniels’ broken hand

Minnesota needed to beat New Orleans in the final game of the regular season to nab the No. 8 seed in the play-in tournament. McDaniels got in foul trouble early, which forced a trip to the bench. In a fit of frustration, McDaniels walked into the tunnel and punched what he thought was merely a sheet of cloth. But there was a concrete wall behind it.

The punch broke McDaniels’ hand, ending his playoff run.

The Wolves went on to enter the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and fell to Denver in five games in Round 1, so maybe Minnesota didn’t have legitimate title hopes in its first season with Rudy Gobert. But the Nuggets later admitted their series with the Wolves was the most challenging amid its title run, which featured three series against teams seeded No. 7 or worse.

Had Minnesota had McDaniels and Naz Reid, who also went down near the end of the regular season, perhaps the late-charging Wolves could’ve challenged for a Cinderella run.

Ponder’s arm bruise

You laugh, but Ponder was playing perhaps the best football of his career at the end of the 2012 campaign. Sure, eventual MVP Adrian Peterson did the heavy lifting that season, but Ponder led Minnesota to four straight wins to close the regular season to eek into the playoffs, highlighted by a three touchdown performance in the finale against Green Bay.

But Ponder suffered a significant bruise on his throwing arm in that matchup, which held him out of the following week’s Wild Card rematch. Joe Webb struggled mightily in Ponder’s stead, as the Vikings scored only three points over the game’s first 56 minutes.

Suter’s broken ankle

Also in the middle of Minnesota’s streak of first-round exits is a five-game loss to Winnipeg in which the Wild didn’t have their top defenseman.

Because Ryan Suter’s streak of 242 consecutive games played came to an end that April, days after suffering a broken ankle after a hit into the boards against … Dallas, which ended the veteran blue liner’s season.

Cassell’s hip injury

The Timberwolves’ best chance to win the NBA title still stands as the 2003-04 campaign in which Minnesota earned the top seed in the Western Conference and made the franchise’s first trip to the conference finals.

But starting point guard Sam Cassell suffered an avulsion fracture in his hip at the end of the conference semifinals.

He tried to play through it, playing in four games of Minnesota’s conference finals series against the Lakers. But he played less than a minute in Game 2 and fewer than five minutes in Game 4 before missing Games 5 and 6 entirely.

Without Cassell and backup point guard Troy Hudson, who’d previously been lost for the year, the Wolves started journeyman Darrick Martin at point guard and lost the series in six games.