The strange coincidence connecting recent NBA Achilles tears

On Saturday evening, the Minnesota Timberwolves went up 3-1 in their first round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, despite sustaining some brutal luck on the injury front. Just a couple minutes into the game, guard Donte DiVincenzo went down with a leg injury that has since been diagnosed as a torn Achilles, ending his season, and potentially keeping him out for next season as well.

DiVincenzo is one of many players to have torn an Achilles over the last two postseasons, and recently, ClutchPoints NBA insider Brett Siegel pointed out a strange coincidence connecting those unfortunate injuries.

“Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, and now Donte DiVincenzo suffering torn Achilles injury the playoffs within the last year. Oddly enough, all four wearing #0 on their jerseys,” reported Siegel on X, formerly Twitter.

It’s certainly a grim bit of trivia for what is often regarded as the most devastating injury that a basketball player can suffer.

The silver lining for DiVincenzo is that Tatum worked his way back from his injury in well under a year, and is now leading the charge for the Boston Celtics on their current playoff push.

Unfortunately, DiVincenzo’s injury was not the last one that the Timberwolves would suffer on Saturday, as superstar Anthony Edwards later exited the game with a hyperextended knee that will keep him out for multiple weeks, per Shams Charania of ESPN.

In his absence, Ayo Dosunmu stepped up in a major way, scoring an astonishing 43 points off the bench and helping the Timberwolves pull off a miraculous Game 4 win without their starting backcourt.

Still, closing this series out without Edwards and DiVincenzo will be quite the task, and Minnesota will have its first chance to do so on Monday night for Game 5 in Denver.