Six days after Ricky Rubio ended up on the floor clutching his knee, two-time All Star Kevin Love came up grabbing his thumb at the end of Thursday's third quarter in an anxious moment that probably made all of Timberwolves Nation gasp (if any of them saw a game that again wasn't televised locally except for the final minutes cut into NBA TV's nightly highlight show).
Athletic trainer Gregg Farnam taped up the thumb on the bench and Love returned for the final 6 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, then headed down an arena corridor to get the thumb x-rayed after the game.
David Kahn soon followed him down the hallway, eager to find out the results, which did come back normal.
The Wolves called the thumb "sprained" and said Love is probable to play Friday night against the Lakers in L.A
Remember: He has missed the last two games against the Lakers because he was ill one night at Staples Center and then had back spasms too bad to play last week at Target Center in the game when Rubio went down and out for the season.
Here's the game story from Thursday night in which Love talks about the instant fear he felt when he fell on a thumb he has broken before on a night when the Wolves fought back from 12 points back with fewer than five minutes to go and tied the game on Nikola Pekovic's putback basket with 0.7 seconds left in regulation.
Then they nearly gave it all away when they let Paul Millsap get wide open on the ensuing inbounds pass after a timeout for a layup that he somehow missed at the buzzer.
And here's the notebook from Thursday that has more on Michael Beasley, who's now with the team through the duration this season -- whether that's the final six weeks or more -- now that the trade deadline has come and gone.
