Timberwolves All-Star Jimmy Butler ramps up activity, nearing return
The Minnesota Timberwolves star who has been out since Feb. 23 with a meniscus tear made that much clear during Sunday’s loss against Utah, when he wore a retro Kevin Garnett jersey under his sport coat that set the perfect tone for this home stretch. It has been nearly 14 years since Garnett led the Timberwolves to their last playoff appearance, and the time is now for Minnesota’s league-long playoff drought to come to an end.
As it stands, the Wolves (44-34) are in seventh place in the Western Conference – tied in the loss column with eighth-place New Orleans (43-34) and not far ahead of ninth-place Denver (42-35) and the 10th-place Clippers (41-36).
If only Butler could ditch the suit for his Superman outfit sometime soon and save the day.
According to a person with knowledge of the situation, the four-time All-Star on Monday took part in five-on-five action for the first time since suffering his injury. The session went well and Butler remains on track to return before the end of the regular season, according to the person, but it remains unclear precisely when that might be. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because of the uncertainty surrounding this situation.
Butler and the Wolves should learn more in the coming days, as Minnesota – which fell 121-97 to Utah on Sunday and has gone 8-8 during his absence – is off until Thursday’s road game against Denver. As is always the case in situations such as these, Butler will continue to ramp up his workload while hoping that there are no setbacks along the way.
As detailed in our look at the wild Western Conference, they then play at the Lakers on Friday before hosting Memphis on April 9 and Denver in an April 11 season finale. Minnesota has already earned the tiebreakers against Oklahoma City, Utah, New Orleans and the Clippers, but they don’t have that edge against San Antonio (by way of the Spurs winning the season series 2-1). The Timberwolves’ tiebreaker against Nuggets remains up for grabs.
Getting Butler back to help with the playoff cause, of course, would be monumental. The 28-year-old Butler leads Minnesota in scoring this season (22.2 points per game), is second in assists (five per), third in rebounds (5.4 per) and first in steals (1.93 per).
Source:-https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2018/04/02/timberwolves-all-star-jimmy-butler-ramps-up-activity-nearing-return/479888002/
