National Basketball Association

2024 NBA odds: Karl-Anthony Towns' injury impacts Wolves' title chances

Published Mar. 7, 2024 1:06 p.m. ET

Bettors backing the Minnesota Timberwolves all season have gotten a great return on their investment. At 43-19, the Wolves have one of the best straight-up records in the league.

That success could be in jeopardy, however, now that All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee and is out indefinitely.

Currently, Minnesota is tied for the best record in the Western Conference with Oklahoma City, and the T'Wolves were also tied with Cleveland at +2500 to win the NBA title.

However, as reports have emerged regarding the uncertainty of Towns' meniscus injury, their odds to hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy moved to +3500.

Towns has been an integral part of Minnesota's great season so far. He's started in all 60 games this season, averaging 22.1 points and 8.4 rebounds per game.

On Thursday's morning episode of "The Carton Show," host Craig Carton explained how KAT's absence will impact Minnesota moving forward.

"When you start looking at Minnesota's road to try to advance to, let's say, the Western Conference finals, there's almost no road to do it," Carton said.

"And I don't want to make Karl-Anthony Towns sound like the second coming of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar because he's not. But he's obviously a key part of that team on both sides of the floor … and it's a crushing blow to a team that, for the first time in a long time, has the ability to claim that [they're] as good as anybody."

Speaking of Minnesota's path to win the West, the Timberwolves' odds to take the conference are now +1300. At the All-Star break, those odds were as short as +825.

Their odds to secure the No. 1 seed in the West are +470.

Stay tuned to FOX Sports for the latest NBA odds as the season unfolds!