Before any of that reaches San Antonio, Minnesota hosts the LA Clippers on Friday. That result will rewrite the Wolves' form line, and it decides how much the rotation gets leaned on the night before a flight to Texas. As of Thursday the Wolves have lost 2 straight. They play here on no rest. The Spurs come in off 2 full days at home.
San Antonio has turned its season around fast. The Spurs opened 0-2 at Frost Bank Center with losses to Oklahoma City and Houston, then won 3 straight. The best of those was a 130-103 rout of a short-handed Sacramento team in which all 5 starters scored in double figures. Wembanyama had 29 and 10 that night, with 15 of them and 4 dunks in the first quarter. After that came 30 and 9 in an overtime win at Utah on the second night of a back-to-back. That Jazz team was missing Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic, so the 3-game run has come against some depleted opponents.
The matchup to watch is Minnesota's frontcourt against Wemby without Edwards to stretch the defense and pull the help. If Ant isn't drawing two defenders off the dribble, Wembanyama can stay home at the rim and wait for Kuminga and McDaniels to come to him. San Antonio has injuries of its own. Tobias Harris (calf) has been sitting, and Jayden Quaintance still isn't cleared for basketball activities, so the forward depth behind Wemby is thinner than it looks.
Tipoff is 7:00 PM CT. The Wolves' night against the Clippers will shape this one more than anything that has happened so far. A tired road team without its best scorer is walking into a building where the home team just found its footing. How long Minnesota's starters play on Friday is the first thing worth checking Saturday morning.