Minnesota Timberwolves to Limit Ricky Rubio’s Playing Time

Ricky Rubio is back and thrilling as ever, but the Minnesota Timberwolves are going to be (quite understandably) very cautious with him. For the time being, he won’t be allowed to play in back-to-back games as he recovers from knee surgery. Per the Star Tribune: “Ricky Rubio says he will play tonight in Orlando, but not Tuesday in Miami against LeBron James and the Heat on the NBA as part of the team’s plan not to play him on the second game of back-to-back situations here as he returns from knee surgery. When asked if he’s disappointed he won’t play against the defending champs in an arena he didn’t play in last year, Rubio said, ‘Yes, of course, but I have to follow the rules.’ He said he was anxious to see how his knee would feel Sunday morning when he awoke after playing his first game and said it felt pretty good. ‘Finally everything is back,’ he said. Asked about having to watch that overtime because of his minutes limit, he said, ‘I kept asking give me an extra minute at least but they didn’t want to. They did it right.’ How long his minutes will be limited and how long he won’t play in back-to-back games isn’t certain right now. ‘It’s hard, and I told them it’s going to be hard to keep doign that for a long time,’ he said. ‘I can accept for a couple days, but I just want to play as many minutes as I can … Let’s see how I feel after 3 or 4 games with limited minutes and see if we can move forward.'”