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March 21 (UPI) -- With the NBA regular season closing in, the Minnesota Timberwolves may have to play out the stretch as they are still clinging to fading postseason hopes without a couple of key players. NBA.com reports that Wolves forward Robert Covington, along with two guards on the club, Derrick Rose and Jeff Teague, are all going to miss the rest of the season due to injury.
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The team has been going at it the last couple of games minus Rose and Teague, as each have sat the last four outings.
Rose has been suffering from soreness and swelling in his right elbow, while Teague has re-aggravated a left foot injury, which originally took place back in on December 31.
Covington was making progress from a bone bruise suffered at the start of the year, but had an unspecified set-back.
He has missed the last 34 games for Minnesota. This season in 22 games the small forward is averaging 14.5 points and 5.7 rebounds per game.
Sources say an MRI of Rose's elbow showed that he has a chip fracture and a loose body in the elbow, and he and the team are looking at various treatments.
This season Rose has appeared in 51 games, averaging 18 points and 4.3 assists per night in just over 27 minutes.
Teague got an injection Tuesday for inflammation, and he will spend the next three weeks in a walking boot, and will be reevaluated.
In his second season with the Wolves, Teague is putting up 12.1 points per night, with eight assists in 30 minutes.
Minnesota is in the 10th in the Western Conference, sitting at 32-39, and trail the final playoff spot in the conference by nine and a half games.
