Nikola Pekovic is a bit bruised up and after undergoing an MRI on his right ankle Tuesday he’s been ruled out for up to 10 days with ankle bursitis, according to multiple reports. Pekovic originally said he had a sore Achilles tendon.
Nikola Pekovic has bursitis in his ankle. Not an Achilles injury. Will miss 7-10 days.
— Jon Krawczynski (@JonKrawczynski) January 28, 2014
#Twolves announce Nikola Pekovic is out of hoops activities for week to 10 days with bursitis in his right ankle. Will be reevaluated then.
— Andy Greder (@twolvesnow) January 28, 2014
Pekovic left Monday night’s win over the Bulls in Chicago because it was too sore to play on.
“It got really, really bad,” he told the Star Tribune. “It just hurt all the time. … I tried to play tonight, but I couldn’t.”
Losing Pekovic for any period of time is significant, but not as bad if backup center Ronny Turiaf is able to consistently provide Minnesota with quality minutes like he did after Pekovic went to the bench in Chicago. Turiaf scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots.
Ironically, Pekovic was on the cover with Kevin Love of a album called “The Bruise Brothers” the Timberwolves sent to every team in the league, trying to convince head coaches to pick the bruising center as a reserve for next month’s All-Star Game. The likelihood of that happening now seems very low.
Pekovic is averaing 18 points and nearly 10 rebounds per game this season, and he’s been averaging nearly 21 points and 11 rebounds per game since the start of December.
At 22-22, the Wolves will host the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday with the chance to crack the .500 mark for the first time in more than two months.
