Malik Beasley not shy about playing more minutes for Wolves

Malik Beasley was already averaging 32 minutes per game before the Timberwolves' 120-114 loss at Charlotte on Friday night.

He played 36 minutes, 31 seconds and scored 31 points, a team high for the Wolves, and after the game Beasley took a question about his fitness level and turned it into a public campaign to get even more minutes.

"I feel like I need to be used more because I don't feel like I get tired," he said. "If I do, I tell the team to come get me."

Beasley was then asked if he had communicated that message to the coaching staff and if it was received.

"I don't know if it's been received or not, but I know I'm in great shape and I know that I can play more," Beasley said.

If Beasley averaged what he played Friday — and he said he would like to play past that mark — it would put him third in the NBA in minutes per game. As it stood Friday night, he was 60th before all games concluded.

Friday's game represented his fifth-highest minutes total of the season. Perhaps it did being a shift in how the Wolves use Beasley because he did play all of the first quarter and then the first two minutes of the second quarter, an unusual rotational move for coach Ryan Saunders. Saunders said after the game that was part to serve as a "bridge" for the second unit and to ride Beasley's hot hand after he scored 16 first-quarter points.

D'Angelo Russell was already ruled out of Friday's game because of left leg soreness, but it appears he will be out for Sunday's game against Toronto in Florida as well.

The point guard did not make the trip for this two-game road swing, coach Ryan Saunders said.

"He's continuing to progress and I don't have other information other than they're just continuing to evaluate him," Saunders said.

Jarrett Culver was out Friday because of the left ankle sprain that has kept him out since Jan. 25, but Culver did make the trip.

The Wolves play Sunday in Tampa, Fla., with the Raptors playing their home games there this season because of coronavirus restrictions in Canada forcing them to play out of the country.

While he was out of the lineup over the past month, Karl-Anthony Towns revealed on Instagram that he was in a car accident during the offseason while in Los Angeles.

Towns offered few details at the time but explained some of what happened during his postgame media session Wednesday. Towns said one afternoon he was on his way to a photo shoot for his girlfriend, model Jordyn Woods, when a driver, who Towns said was drunk, drifted over and hit him.

"It wasn't a good wreck," Towns said. "The way I am, even as how I felt and the injuries I sustained and stuff like that, I was more worried I messed up her car."

Towns said he spent time in the hospital getting "monitored and tested" and said he was thankful Woods was there to help him.

"I survived. I'm happy I was alive. I did what I had to do … all that stuff and she was right there with me," he said.

Towns was also a passenger in a February 2019 accident in Minneapolis while on his way to the airport for a road game.