On Thursday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves were hit with the unfortunate news that Karl-Anthony Towns had suffered a torn meniscus, which puts his status for the postseason in doubt. But Anthony Edwards, during their contest against the Indiana Pacers, took it upon himself to breathe life into his team with an outstanding two-way performance in a 113-111 win.

With Towns out due to injury, the onus was on Edwards to carry the offense. Edwards hasn't looked like himself as of late, but he came howling back to life with a 44-point performance. But he didn't just do the heavy lifting on offense, he also saved his team on the defensive end. The Timberwolves star rejected Aaron Nesmith's attempt at a layup that would have sent the game in overtime, and he did so in resounding fashion, using Jaden McDaniels as leverage to gain more elevation and then hitting his head on the rim as he swatted away the shot.

Even Anthony Edwards was surprised with how much elevation he got even though the Timberwolves star is surely accustomed to the thin air in the skies with how high he gets off the ground on a regular basis.

“I hit my head I think on the rim. It's hurting real bad and I landed on my wrist. But I saw him with the lane, I knew he was going up for the layup and I was just like, ‘I'm [gonna] go get this.' I ain't never jumped that high in my life,” Edwards said in his postgame interview following their win over the Pacers, via ClutchPoints Twitter.

Indeed, there was a bit of carnage in the aftermath of perhaps the best defensive play of Anthony Edwards' brief career to this point. Edwards got up so high that it was a bit of a scary sight for fans to watch him brace his fall in the most graceful manner possible. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like Edwards is suffering any ill effects from his epic play.

Moving forward, this aggressive version of Edwards is what the Timberwolves will be needing to maintain pace in the hunt for the Western Conference's top seed.