If Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders is to be believed, neither he, his staff nor the Wolves players thought much about forward Kevin Garnett's absence heading into their game against the tremendously talented, dauntingly deep Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night at the America Airlines Center.

For their next parlor trick, the Wolves will fail to see, hear or smell an African bull elephant sitting in the middle of their locker room later this week.

Remarkably, without Garnett, the Wolves beat the Mavericks 117-100 before a shocked, then grumpy sellout crowd. Everyone knows that KG is to the Wolves what K.C. is to the Sunshine Band, yet his absence -- he was attending his grandfather's funeral in Greenville, S.C. -- didn't prevent them from staging their most stunning victory of the season.

His absence, in fact, required it.