Timberwolves starting center Nikola Pekovic played 12 minutes in Saturday’s 101-97 loss to Memphis on a night when his troublesome ankle grew too painful once again for him to play.
The same guy who had bone-spur surgery in May 2012 and missed 28 of last season’s final 38 games because of bursitis in his ankle has had pain persist even after he missed 31 games because of the same issues from mid-November to mid-January.
Pekovic consistently has said he has not been pain-free since January. On Saturday, he played the second night of back-to-back games, and this time it was too much.
“It gets worse,” he said afterward. “The morning is the worst after a game. I was fighting through, you know? You fight through something and you hit a wall sometimes. Tonight was that night. I feel bad for that. They’ve got big boys down there.”