It was easy to dismiss the Minnesota Timberwolves this season. They lost two starters, one (Malik Sealy) to a tragic, untimely death and one (Joe Smith) to an act of clandestine stupidity which the NBA jumped on with unrestrained zeal. That unfortunate lapse in judgment also cost Minnesota two more bodies, including the owner as well as the basketball el jefe. They're suspended until next season.

	Timberwolves GM and coach Flip Saunders reportedly has agreed to remain with Minnesota.

A team on the edge. A team on the brink. A team in a cold-weather, small-market city with one of the top five players in the league, stripped bare for all to see. Or so it appeared.

Well, as Gomer Pyle might say, "surprise, surprise, surprise."

The Timberwolves have taken more hits than Rasputin and lived to tell about it. Sealy is in a coffin, Smith is in Detroit, owner Glen Taylor is counting his money in Mankato and basketball boss Kevin McHale is checking out the latest from Field & Stream. The Timberwolves are, like most teams, up and down, but, indisputably, not down and out.

After 43 games, Minnesota was 25-18, owners of a four-game winning streak (triggered by that most face-slapping, humiliating of events, a home loss to the Celtics.) After 43 games last season, they were 25-18 en route to a franchise-best 50 victories. That they are even in such a position now -- and it will be tough to duplicate last year given their schedule -- is a tribute to the all-around greatness of Kevin Garnett and the unsung eminence of coach/general manager Flip Saunders.

The steadying hand of Saunders is exactly what Minnesota needed when the aftermath of the Smith fiasco left bodies strewn hither and yon. Other teams in the cutthroat Western Conference had upgraded. Minnesota had not only lost two starters, but also a valuable, defensive-oriented reserve in free agent Bobby Jackson, who left for Sacramento. The Smith saga was a daily distraction for two months, until David Stern's hammer came down. Smith left town. McHale reached for his Titleists. Saunders was left to clean things up.

	Smith

	Garnett

"You lose somebody in your family, like that, you just lose them. That was the biggest thing," Saunders said. "Just dealing with that was hard. There was the pressure of the unknown in terms of Hoe. That went on, every day, for two months. Something was developing. Something was not developing. That was extremely stressful for everybody, not just me. But you get suspensions like that, that's tough."

It had been McHale, after all, who brought Saunders into the NBA in 1995. The two were college teammates and buddies at the University of Minnesota. No one could argue that this was one of those "nationwide searches" that never left McHale's desk. Saunders had more than paid his coaching dues in such garden spots as Rapid City, S.D., La Crosse, Wisc., and Sioux Falls, S.D. We're not even counting the 91-13 record over four years at Golden Valley Lutheran.

Saunders spent seven long years in the CBA. He remains, to this day, the third winningest coach in the league's long history. Thus, if anyone was prepared to, as they say in hockey, change on the fly, it was the ever-adaptable Saunders.

	“	I've been with the same people for six years. The only saving grace is that our players have character. I mean that. There are a lot of teams that would not be able to go through what we've gone through and be able to play at the level we've been playing and to compete in a very tough conference. ”
		— Saunders

"If it wasn't for that experience in the CBA, I don't know what I'd do," Saunders said. "When you coach there, you're prepared for just about anything. When you're in that environment, you know something is going to happen. You know what CBA stands for: Change Basketball Association. You know something always is going to happen.

"At this level, however," he went on, "it's more about preparation. So when those kinds of things come up, it's harder. I've been with the same people for six years. The only saving grace is that our players have character. I mean that. There are a lot of teams that would not be able to go through what we've gone through and be able to play at the level we've been playing and to compete in a very tough conference."

Amazingly, even at 25-18, the Wolves would be on the bubble for a playoff berth in the Western Conference if the season ended today. That speaks volumes about the balance of power; in the Eastern Conference they'd have the fourth-best record. But even at 25-18, there are some warning signs, such as defense, overreliance on the multi-talented Garnett and future opponents.

The Timberwolves have missed the defense of Jackson, Smith and Sealy all season and have been near the bottom in defensive field goal percentage. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against the Wolves. Only Vancouver, Golden State, Boston and Chicago have a worse percentage. It was 44.5 percent last season. Also, the Wolves' differential is less than one point. Last year, it was 2.5.

Garnett, meanwhile, is trying his mightiest to carry the load, sometimes to the detriment of the team. Saunders thinks his franchise forward is somewhat drained from the back-to-back summers playing for the US Olympic team.

"I think all those guys, Kevin, Gary (Payton), Jason (Kidd) are all mentally drained," Saunders said. "It's taken a toll on Kevin. He has tried. We want him to try not to do too much, or think too much, because he wants to do everything. The biggest thing he has done is give up his offense to get other people involved, realizing that that will release a lot of pressure on him and that the team will be better off for it."

In the recent, four-game winning streak, Garnett was the sole leading scorer in only one of those games. In the 16 games this season in which Garnett has not been the sole, leading scorer, Minnesota is 11-5.

Then there's the schedule. We're more than halfway through the season and the Timberwolves have yet to play Portland. Their first of four meetings is this Saturday. They also have three games left with the Lakers and Mavericks and two apiece with the Kings, Spurs and Nuggets, all of whom are ahead of them in the standings.

They'll show up for all of them. They'll win their share. If there's one thing they've shown, it's resiliency. You need look no further than to the coach. His players may not be there, his friend and boss may not be there, but, somehow, he has managed to hold it all together. All those years in La Crosse weren't for naught after all.

Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.