It’ll be a who’s who of key players on the bench during Wednesday night’s game between the Timberwolves and Celtics in Boston.
Celtics All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving is out after scratching his eye in Monday’s game against the Spurs, and Wolves head coach Tom Thibodeau said Wednesday morning that Derrick Rose (ankle), Jeff Teague (ankle) and Robert Covington (ankle) are all most likely out.
Teague has missed eight straight games with ankle inflammation while Rose and Covington are dealing with sore ankles from earlier twists.
The injuries put Tyus Jones in line for a third straight start, and it probably means Josh Okogie will enter the starting lineup in place of Covington. They’ll probably be joined in the starting lineup by Andrew Wiggins, Taj Gibson and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Jones has stuffed the stat sheet the last two games with a total of 27 points on 11-of-23 shooting with 18 assists, six rebounds and six steals.
Terry Rozier will undoubtedly fill in for Irving while Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown get a bit of a boost in fantasy lineups. Gordon Hayward could also see more opportunities on the offensive end of the floor.
Hayward had his best game of the season against the Wolves at Target Center on Dec. 1 when he scored a season-high 30 points with nine rebounds and eight assists. He hasn’t topped 19 points in any game since then.
Minnesota is 17-20 this season and has lost eight of the last 12 games, including a disappointing 123-114 loss on New Year’s Eve to the New Orleans Pelicans, who played without All-Star Anthony Davis.
On this date last year the Wolves were an impressive 24-14.
