It's barely a month into the season, but it's already, according to Ryan Saunders, the point when he doesn't know "if anybody is 100 percent in the NBA."
The Suns and Timberwolves were exhibit No. 1 for that on Saturday.
Missing for the Wolves were Josh Okogie, Robert Covington and Treveon Graham in addition to Jake Layman and Shabazz Napier, who were previously declared out.
Out for the Suns were Aron Baynes, DeAndre Ayton and former Wolves darling Ricky Rubio.
Those who were left played a basketball game at Target Center. It wasn't a very aesthetically pleasing game, and compounding matters for those in attendance was that Phoenix beat the Wolves 100-98.
Even with arguably their three best defenders out in Covington, Graham and Okogie, defense wasn't the main problem — the Wolves held Phoenix to 34% shooting. It was offense, where the Wolves shot just 42%, an ugly 29% from three-point range and a hideous 59% from the free-throw line.
"Just didn't follow our system. We didn't make shots," center Karl-Anthony Towns said. "It's obviously a little hard to get in rhythm when you ain't making anything. They didn't go through tonight."
Try as he might, Towns couldn't carry the Wolves to victory despite his 31 points and 17 rebounds. He had a chance to tie the game with the Wolves down 98-95, but his 35-foot three-pointer missed long with 9.2 seconds remaining.