HOUSTON – Eight days after the Timberwolves dealt him to Houston, Robert Covington did something that was unusual for a player just traded away — he came back for a game, and it didn't involve his new team.

Covington returned to Target Center for the Wolves' game against Charlotte just before the All-Star break. He happened to be in town moving stuff with his brother from his old residence to Houston when Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns called him and demanded he come to the game. Covington didn't see a problem with it.

"There was no bad blood. Those guys are still my brothers and whatnot," Covington said before Tuesday's Rockets-Wolves game. "I talked to Kat, and he basically demanded me to come to the game. I was back there moving stuff … and once we finished, we actually finished right before the game started. Karl called me literally 10 minutes before tipoff and was like, where you at? … He said dude if you're not there, we ain't brothers.

"We didn't have nothing else to do."

Covington said he was appreciative of the 15 months he spent in the Wolves organization. It seems like not a long time, but Covington went through a lot. The trade from Philadelphia in November 2018 upended plans he had for his family in Philadelphia; then he got hurt — a right knee bone bruise that caused him to miss every game after Dec. 31. There were setbacks during rehabilitation, and eventually Covington underwent surgery. He grew more and more frustrated and eventually decided to see a therapist to sort out his life.

He said he was grateful that his time with the Wolves helped improve him as a person.

"It put me in this new light …" Covington said. "Overall I just learned as an individual, a lot of things are going to change. There's going to be a lot of uncertainty. It's just a matter of how you handle everything. The way I've handled the transition now compared to then is completely different. I'm a completely different person.

"A year of growth, a year of things where you keep getting knocked down. But I made it. I embraced it all."

Coach Ryan Saunders said Covington is "one of my favorite players I've ever been around."

"It was really good to see him [against Charlotte]," Saunders said. "I didn't expect it. I didn't know he was going to be there. But it says a lot about him that he'd feel so comfortable and … coming back to an arena and to a place … where he just got moved from. I'm really pulling for him here in Houston. Just not tonight."

The Rockets acquired Covington to be a defensive fulcrum in their new no-center starting lineup. He is averaging 12.8 points and 7.9 rebounds for Houston, which had lost four straight before Tuesday's win, where he had 10 points and seven rebounds.

Coronavirus precautions

Tuesday was the first game the Wolves played under the NBA's new guidelines for media access. There were no open locker rooms before or after the game, and the Wolves held their media availability in what usually is the media dining area. Each team made one player available before the game, in accordance with league guidelines, since neither team held shootaround earlier in the day.