Timberwolves' Zach LaVine has torn ACL, to miss rest of season

— -- Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine will need season-ending surgery after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee, the team announced Saturday.

LaVine had an MRI before the Wolves hosted Memphis on Saturday, when the diagnosis was revealed. He suffered the injury during Friday's 116-108 loss to the Detroit Pistons.

LaVine, who was averaging 18.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists, will have surgery at a later date, the team said.

LaVine is part of Minnesota's young trio of 21-year-olds that includes Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns, a group that has given the team's long-suffering fans hope that the franchise is returning to relevance. His explosive athleticism has made him a crowd favorite, but he had taken another step this season toward proving he is more than just a dunker.

LaVine was shooting 38.7 percent from 3-point range and had worked harder to become a better defender under new coach Tom Thibodeau. And after winning the past two dunk titles, LaVine recently decided not to go for a third straight win this year, a decision Thibodeau said proved the flashy youngster had the bigger picture in mind.

"He's done a lot more than just be a dunker -- his shooting, his playmaking, all that stuff," Thibodeau said in January. "But the big thing is weighing whether the rest is more important to be ready for the second half of the season. So I don't want him putting a lot of time and thought into that. I want him thinking about what we have to do tonight. ... Prioritizing winning and our team is the most important thing, and I think he'll do that."

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James took to Twitter to send well wishes and to hope for a quick recovery for LaVine.

After the Wolves started the season a disappointing 6-18, they had shown signs of putting things together. Improved defense and more consistent ball movement helped them go 13-11 before losses this week to Cleveland and Detroit. They had climbed to just 2-plus games back of the eighth seed in the West before those two losses, and LaVine was just starting to pull himself out of a shooting funk that had set in since he missed two games with a hip injury.

Thibodeau has a few options to help the team weather LaVine's absence. Among them: Wiggins can move from small forward to shooting guard and Nemanja Bjelica can start at small forward, a strategy the coach used when LaVine missed a game against the Los Angeles Lakers early in the season.

Or Thibodeau could use veteran Brandon Rush as the starting shooting guard. Rush played well in LaVine's two-game absence in January because of the hip injury. The Wolves beat Houston and Oklahoma City with Rush in the starting lineup.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.