The Minnesota Timberwolves have officially entered the “please don’t look at Ant’s knee” portion of the season. Anthony Edwards is out up to two months after an arthroscopic procedure on his right knee, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, and The Athletic has December circled as the target for his return. Here’s how Shams broke the news:

That’s brutal timing, because Ant was cooking. He was averaging 33.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and two steals per game, he led the league with 18 threes, and he’d already dropped 45 on the Heat and 47 on the Cavaliers. So yeah, the Wolves are going to miss him.

Ant’s knee has been a problem for a while

It’s worth noting that this isn’t exactly new. The same right knee bothered him during last season’s playoffs, and The Athletic reported that he had been “having his right knee drained multiple times to stay available.”

He played through the pain in the preseason, too, and he was seen grabbing at it during the win over Toronto before the team finally shut him down. At some point, the knee was going to win that argument. According to Charania, the Wolves and Edwards “opted to address the situation now versus having it linger the second half of the season,” so at least they picked their poison.

LaMelo Ball is earning that trade

Remember when everybody spent the summer asking how LaMelo and Ant were going to share one basketball? Well, the Wolves don’t have to worry about that for a couple of months. Minnesota sent Naz Reid and draft picks to Charlotte in the June deal for Ball, and early on, he looked perfectly happy to let Ant eat.

Ball was averaging just 14.8 points and 6.3 assists per game when Edwards went down, way down from the 20-plus he put up with the Hornets. That changed fast, and so far, LaMelo has been one hell of an insurance policy.

He had 24 points in a 127-101 blowout of the Clippers, then went off for a season-high 34 points, six rebounds and three assists in Monday’s 112-100 win over the Milwaukee Bucks while shooting 12 of 21 from the field and 6 of 13 from deep. He did that a few hours after landing on the injury report with a right wrist contusion, by the way, so apparently the wrist was fine.

Twenty-four of those 34 points came in the first half, and the six threes made history, too. Ball needed just 311 games to reach 1,000 career three-pointers, the fastest anyone has ever done it, beating Duncan Robinson’s old mark of 343 games, per Yahoo Sports. That’s the LaMelo that Hornets fans spent years watching on League Pass, except now he’s doing it for a team that plays meaningful games in November. The NBA’s official account made sure nobody missed it, either:

He kept it going on Wednesday in Houston. Ball coughed it up early and struggled for most of the night, then scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including seven during a 10-2 run that gave Minnesota a 104-98 lead with about five minutes left in a 117-107 win over the Rockets.

He finished with 20 points, six assists and three steals, while Ayo Dosunmu led the way with 21 points and six assists and Bones Hyland gave them 19 off the bench. Jonathan Kuminga closed the door with two late threes on his way to 16 points and eight rebounds, and Houston lost for just the second time all season despite 21 points from Kevin Durant and an Alperen Sengun triple-double.

It hasn’t all been pretty

Let’s not get carried away, though. In the first game without Edwards, Ball went 3 of 11 from the field with six turnovers in a 119-114 loss to the Golden State Warriors, while Stephen Curry dropped 44 like it was 2016 all over again.

That same night, Ball and Kuminga got pretty animated with Rudy Gobert on the bench while Gobert just sat there and took it, per ClutchPoints. Nothing says “new team chemistry” quite like two guys in their first season with the team lighting up the four-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Gobert played it down afterward, telling Wolves beat writer Andrew Dukowitz, “I didn’t feel any animosity. There was some frustration, for sure.” Chris Finch, meanwhile, said he hadn’t even seen it, as Dane Moore pointed out on X:

There’s also a small-sample alert here. CBS Sports noted that Minnesota posted a bottom-10 offense with Ball on the floor and Edwards off it, albeit over just 74 non-garbage-time possessions, and the Wolves have gone 3-2 since Ant went down.

The Wolves can survive without Ant

Still, Ball isn’t doing this alone. Jaden McDaniels was averaging 15 points on 59% shooting and 42% from three when Ant got hurt, Dosunmu has been a reliable second option and Kuminga keeps making big plays late, all while Terrence Shannon Jr. has missed the last two games with a bruised hip.

Minnesota also had the league’s second-ranked defense when the Edwards news broke, so this team isn’t going to fall apart overnight. Personally, I think the Wolves will be just fine as long as LaMelo keeps playing like this.

They’re 6-3 and seventh in a jammed Western Conference, just one game behind the Blazers, Lakers and Rockets at the top, per ESPN’s standings. If they can stay in that pack until Christmas, they get a rested Ant back for the stretch run with a point guard who’s already figured out how to run the show without him.

The Wolves visit the Pelicans on Friday (Saturday, Manila time), and in the meantime, someone in Minnesota’s front office should probably send Charlotte a fruit basket. Let’s see how long LaMelo can keep this up.