Injuries hamper start of NBA season

IF things go the way Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves currently envision, he’ll be back from arthroscopic knee surgery in plenty of time for a playoff push and possibly making a run at winning an NBA championship. In other words, his injury could have been worse. Edwards is out of Minnesota’s lineup for the foreseeable future, since the long-term goal — a title — obviously is far more important than anything like the individual awards that he won’t be eligible to win this season because he’ll miss too many games. He was playing in pain. His knee was only going to keep hurting. The decision was clear and fixing it now is the smart move. “It was kind of a bit of a shock to everybody last night, certainly unexpected at that point,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said Wednesday night. “The guys are pretty resilient. They came in in a pretty good mood today. Obviously, we talked a little bit about it, what it might mean for us going forward. ... Certainly, guys are disappointed for him and us. But, nothing you can do.” Edwards will be back with plenty of season left. Some teams don’t have that to lean on right now....