The Minnesota Timberwolves put on a show for a national television audience on ESPN and then put up a win at the buzzer when Kevin Love spent the final 1.5 seconds of the game knocking down a 25-foot three-pointer to push the Timberwolves past the Los Angeles Clippers 101-98.
Minnesota trailed most of the game and were down by 12 points early in the fourth quarter, but rookie point guard Ricky Rubio sparked a comeback which set up Love's game winning shot. Rubio made six of eight free throws in the fourth quarter and set up Dark Milicic for a pair of hoops before making his only field goal of the night, a cold-blooded three-pointer to tie the game at 98-98 with 20 seconds to play.
The Clippers, playing without Chris Paul, couldn't take back the lead as Chauncey Billups missed his chance around the hoop leaving just enough time for Love to catch-and-shoot Minnesota to victory.
As Canis Hoopus notes, the win was huge for Minnesota on multiple levels after being an afterthought for the past few years.
In all seriousness, this was a monsterous win for reasons that have little to do with basketball. The Wolves got put to the national taste test tonight, so to speak. They got put on national TV, marched into the NBA's largest market, and beat the NBA's hottest up-and-comer, sealing the win with 0:00 on the clock. This is the kind of thing that starts buzz. That starts momentum. That gets attention for something other than record-breaking awfulness and screwy media sound bites.
For more on the teams from this game, you can check out the Minnesota Timberwolves' blog Canis Hoopus and the Los Angeles Clippers' blog Clips Nation. For more on the NBA, check out the network's NBA hub at SBNation.com/NBA.