Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns announces he's 'back' hours before Friday's game vs. Hawks

Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns will return to the court on Friday against the Atlanta Hawks. The source? Towns himself:

Towns tore the meniscus in his left knee during a game against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 3 and has been sidelined ever since. On Thursday, the Timberwolves upgraded his status for Atlanta game to "questionable."

With two games remaining on the schedule, Minnesota is 55-25 and second in the Western Conference. It has an identical record to the third-place Oklahoma City Thunder, and it is one game behind the first-place Denver Nuggets. After hosting the Hawks, the Wolves will host the Phoenix Suns on Sunday in their regular-season finale. 

Minnesota has gone 12-6 in its last 18 games without Towns, with an average (i.e. 115.3 points per 100 possessions) offense and a dominant (i.e. 108.6 per 100) defense in that span. In other words, the Wolves essentially performed at the same level as they did before Towns' injury. Much of the credit for this must go to delightful big man Naz Reid, who has become one of the frontrunners for Sixth Man of the Year. Over that stretch, Reid averaged 17.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks in 28.8 minutes and shot 42.6% from 3-point range on 6.8 attempts per game.

Reid's minutes will decrease with Towns back in the picture (unless head coach Chris Finch decides it's time to normalize three-big lineups), which is a bit of a shame. Nonetheless, the return of a four-time All-Star is great news for Minnesota, whose offensive ceiling in the playoffs is surely higher now. In 60 games pre-injury, Towns averaged 22.1 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 3.0 assists in 32.8 minutes, with a 26.9% usage rate and a 62.8% true shooting percentage.