His knee is getting there — although he remains on a sharp minutes limit and is not playing both games of back-to-backs — but Ricky Rubio sat out Minnesota’s win last weekend over Phoenix due to back spasms.
Those spasms will keep Rubio out of the Timberwolves two games this week, reports the Star Tribune.
Rick Adelman said it didn’t make much sense to put Rubio and his spasming back on a plane to Utah and Denver for back-to-back games, the second of which he wasn’t going to play anyway.
Instead, unless there’s a late change in plans before the team flies today, they’ll keep him here for treatment and try to get him healthy for Saturday’s game against Portland.
Good, because I want to see the Rubio/Damian Lillard matchup, even in limited minutes.
All three of these games are big ones for Minnesota — Jazz, Nuggets and Blazers are all within two games of each other for those final playoff spots in a deep West. Only five games separate the six and 12 seeds overall in the West, and you know that the Lakers are getting healthy and Dallas just got Dirk Nowtizki back. It’s going to be crowded at the bottom in the West and wins now against other teams in that boat matter a lot.
But Minny is going to have to get a couple of those wins without Rubio.
