Just a few minutes before 6 p.m. on Saturday night, Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders emerged from the tunnel onto the Target Center court, flanked by president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas and vice president of basketball performance Robby Sikka.
It is rare for Saunders to be on the court an hour before tipoff. He usually is back in the coach’s area of the Wolves locker room making final preparations for that night’s game. But it was important for him to be there to watch as Karl-Anthony Towns went through a pregame routine to test the dislocated wrist that had kept him out of the previous six games.
There was a host of Wolves officials lingering around the basket on the San Antonio Spurs side of the court, from EVP of basketball operations Sachin Gupta to head athletic trainer Gregg Farnam and several others, all eyes glued on the face of the franchise. There was a lot riding on it. The Wolves had cratered in the six games that Towns had missed,…
