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NBA Coast to Coast: Shabazz Muhammad to miss rest of season

Shabazz Muhammad of the U.S. Team dunks during the Rising Stars Challenge on Friday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
(Elsa Garrison / Getty Images)
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Minnesota Timberwolves forward Shabazz Muhammad will have season-ending surgery on the middle finger on his left hand, the latest serious injury the team has suffered this season.

The Timberwolves announced on Saturday Muhammad will have surgery on a ruptured ligament in his finger. It happened on Wednesday when his finger was caught in Andrew Wiggins’ jersey during practice.

It’s the latest in a long line of injuries for the Wolves, who were finally getting fully healthy after missing starters Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic for much of the season.

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Muhammad was becoming a key player in his second season. He averaged 13.5 points per game after only 3.9 as a rookie. The Wolves also will miss Anthony Bennett for the next two weeks with an injured right ankle.

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New Orleans All-Star forward Anthony Davis left the Pelicans’ game in Miami on Saturday night after aggravating his problematic right shoulder in the first quarter.

It was the first of two big injury blows for the Pelicans. Ryan Anderson departed not long afterward after the team said he sprained his right knee.

Davis departed with 3:07 left in the first quarter, moments after he attempted a shot and made contact with Miami’s Hassan Whiteside.

Davis immediately began grimacing in pain, then walked off the court while grabbing the shoulder even before play could be stopped. He was evaluated in the locker room, the determination quickly coming that he would not return.

Davis had six points on 2 for 8 shooting and six rebounds before departing.

Davis initially hurt the shoulder against Chicago on Feb. 7, missing two regular-season games and then last weekend’s All-Star Game in New York. He entered Saturday night averaging 24.3 points this season, fourth-best in the NBA.

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--Associated Press

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

Trade hangover

“I got traded to the Lakers one day [in 1992] and they retracted the deal,” Charles Barkley told SI.com. “I knew it would come down to Portland, [the] Lakers or Phoenix. So I get a call from my agent one morning and he said, ‘Philly has traded you to the Lakers.’ So I went to lunch and started drinking. I’m …so excited that I am going to the Lakers. Three hours later I get a … phone call from my agent saying that the Sixers backed out of the deal. I said, ‘Oh … I’m feeling pretty good right now.’ So I went out and played that night. I played pretty well. I wasn’t blasted, just a couple of drinks at lunch.”

Injury toll

“Let’s be real now. We’d still be up there if we didn’t have injuries,” Kevin Durant told reporters just before the trade deadline. “If I wasn’t out, if Russ [Russell Westbrook] wasn’t out, we’d be up there. So don’t act like we a bad team, like we got worse. We had injuries. It’s a part of the game and I understand that, we’re not crying about it. But that’s what happened. We lost Russell for a playoff series, we lost Serge [Ibaka] for a playoff series. Stuff like that happens.”

I’m open

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Dirk Nowitzki on his teammate, point guard Rajon Rondo: “I actually told Rondo when he first got here that I wanted one lob for the rest of the season. But he hasn’t come through yet.”

— Barry Stavro

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