Kyle Anderson says Timberwolves will have to 'keep pushing' without Karl-Anthony Towns

If there's someone on the Timberwolves roster who knows how a team can overcome the loss of one of its stars for an extended length of time, it's Kyle Anderson.

Last season, Anderson was on the Grizzlies, Wednesday's visitors to Target Center, and Memphis had to weather 25 games without Ja Morant. The Grizzlies went 20-5 in those games.

The Wolves may face a similar number of games without Karl-Anthony Towns for several weeks, according to the team, because of a right calf strain. Towns was in the locker room before Wednesday's game with crutches and a walking boot.

"Any time any one of us goes down, it's tough. We're going to miss him," Anderson said after Wednesday's shootaround. "He's obviously a big part of what we do. That's the NBA. Things happen. We're going to have to keep pushing, try to figure out a way to get some wins."

Anderson said the key for the Wolves is not to think about who is and isn't available to play, and just go out and play.

"Finding a way to stay together. It's very easy to not stay together in a game or throughout a season when things go hard," Anderson said. "But the more you can communicate it and actually go out and perform staying together, I don't want to say it'll make it easier, but it should give us a little bit of help."

Anderson could be in line for a bigger role with Towns out. He was in the starting lineup at power forward Wednesday, but coach Chris Finch said the starting lineup could change game by game as the Wolves figure out how to navigate.

"I would approach the game the same way if I'm playing, and whoever is out there, we roll with and we have confidence in," Anderson said. "That was the case last year. That's been the case my whole career. So we're obviously going to miss Karl, but I don't really play into too much who's not playing. It's just whoever is out there with us, be ready to go and let's try to get the job done."

That was a message center Rudy Gobert echoed. Gobert said he went through an injury similar to Towns' a season ago and was sharing tips with him on how to recover.

"He's going to take his time, get back stronger and we're going to hold it down for him," Gobert said.

Just how might the Wolves look with Towns out? Finch said on offense the Wolves will run more spread pick and roll prominently featuring Gobert.

"I think some spacing issues might kind of naturally work out," Finch said. "Obviously would be able to put some quote-unquote smaller lineups out there."

As for defense, Towns' absence could mean the Wolves play straight drop coverage with Gobert the main engine on that end of the floor, instead of trying to mix up coverages based on whether Towns, Gobert or both were playing.

"I think defensively, we could simplify some stuff too. We were headed in that direction anyway. That's probably good for us right now."

Finch made a surprise move in his starting lineup. The Wolves originally had Jaylen Nowell starting, but just before tipoff, they announced that rookie Wendell Moore Jr. would be making his first start.

Jaden McDaniels, who missed the past two games because of an illness, came into Wednesday as a game-time decision but did not play. Guard Jordan McLaughlin missed his fifth consecutive game because of a left calf strain, while Taurean Prince remained out because of an injured right shoulder. Prince is a week removed from when he suffered the injury and Finch had placed a one- to two-week time frame on his return.