This was supposed to be the meatgrinder portion of the Timberwolves’ schedule. Ahead of last week’s contest in New Orleans, Minnesota’s next 16 games were all against teams with records above .500.

These would be the tests that would show exactly where Minnesota — which sports the top record in the Western Conference — stacks up against the rest of the NBA’s top-tier teams. And it came at a perfect time. Anthony Edwards would only miss the New Orleans game. After that, the Wolves would be back to a full deck.

Best on best for the next month. Here we go. Let’s have some fun.

If only it worked that way in the NBA, or pro sports in general.

New Orleans had a healthy roster, but its win over Minnesota felt like it should come with an asterisk with Edwards out — much like how Minnesota’s two previous wins over the Pelicans came with Zion Williamson sidelined.

Then came Thursday in Dallas, where the Mavericks were down four rotational players, including Kyrie Irving.

And on Saturday, Minnesota welcomed Indiana — a fun, upstart team that is playing well and loves to get up and down the floor, which in theory would’ve provided a nice test for the Wolves’ transition defense.

But, of course, the Pacers played the night prior in Washington D.C. And Indiana star guard Tyrese Haliburton suffered an injury in that contest that caused him to miss Saturday’s game.

Jimmy Butler was absent for the Heat’s tilt at Target Center. Ditto for Joel Embiid when Philadelphia came to town. Boston was without Derrick White — deemed by some in Boston media as the Celtics’ second-most impactful player — when the Celtics were in Minneapolis. The aforementioned Williamson missed New Orleans’ game in Minnesota, as did Pelicans guard CJ McCollum.

When Minnesota was downed in Phoenix, the Wolves were on the second half of a back to back.

How many elite, best-on-best matchups have the Timberwolves truly played this season? If you say the Timberwolves aren’t at their best without Jaden McDaniels, then really only their loss in Atlanta and win over Denver early in the season earn that distinction.

If you’re willing to look past his absence, then home games against the Knicks and Kings meet the criteria.

Perhaps Monday’s game in Miami will live up to the billing, or Wednesday’s game in Philadelphia. A few days out, it looks like they both will — but at this point, who knows?

Predicting who will play is just as — if not more — difficult than predicting who’s going to win.

The Timberwolves host the Lakers on Thursday in what would generally be a premier matchup, but both teams play the night prior. Minnesota will certainly play all of its players on Thursday, as well, but there’s no guarantee the Lakers will. And even if they do, neither team will be at the peak of its abilities on the second half of a back to back.

No wonder it can be difficult for the casual sports fan to fully embrace the NBA’s regular season.

And “rest” isn’t to blame for all of this. Legitimate injuries take place over the course of an 82-game season. Perhaps the length of the campaign is the primary issue. Fewer games would result in fewer chances of injury and could eliminate back to backs from the schedule altogether. Also, the lower number of games would increase the general urgency to stack wins on a night-to-night basis.

Because right now the on-court product is almost never the best version of itself.

Those who have accepted that reality point to the postseason as the time when you know you can see the elites finally square off. But even that isn’t a guarantee. Minnesota was severely banged up during its first-round series against Denver in the spring.

In the second round, Phoenix had point guard Chris Paul for all of three quarters before he succumbed to injury. The Suns reached that round by disposing of a Clippers team that by the end of the series was missing Paul George and Kawhi Leonard.

The war of attrition rages onward.

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