Losing your best scorer would obviously hurt any team in the NBA, but the Minnesota Timberwolves seem to be the most affected by it when in reality, they should have the talent on their roster to carry on.

Anthony Edwards is the missing scorer in question. Edwards has missed a lort of time lately due to a knee injury, but he had recently made a return to the court. Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, though, Edwards was absent from the lineup again on Thursday night due to what head coach Chris Finch described as an illness.

That force Edwards to sit out a game that the Timberwolves lost to the Detroit Pistons 113-108 in a tight matchup that Finch believed was winnable for the Timberwolves, if only their execution was better.

"We've been playing with good pace. We've been moving the ball well. We don't have a lot of guys who can punch through the gaps and get to the paint," Finch said (via Timberwolves). "We've missed some really good looks, too. We've got to make those loose. We've got shooters 1-6, 0-7. This is kind of every night."

The Timberwolves haven't ascended to become one of the best scoring teams in the NBA on the strengths of Edwards alone, and that's what has been so frustrating for Finch.

Across the roster, Minnesota has fast-paced, physical players that have a lot of shooting capabilities, but they've been falling short of their potential as of late, especially without Edwards in the roster to bolster them.

Julius Randle has been the one lone Minnesota player who hasn't skipped a beat when it comes to scoring, and Thursday was no different with a game-leading 27 points, but the rest of the offensive power hasn't been showing up consistently.

By the end of the game Minnesota did finish with a 44% field goal percentage, but their missed shot still spoke louder than their made ones, especially as the game to a close with the Rockets just leading by a possession or two.

Edwards has obviously been having an outstanding, but that doesn't mean that the entire team should run through him alone. The flashes of offensive brilliance are still there for the rest of the roster, but missing Edwards means that their mistakes and the times they come up short or even more glaring.

Ultimately, the Timberwolves are a better offensive team than what they showed against the Pistons, but their success on the score board, like many other things in basketball, comes down to execution in the biggest moments.