SALT LAKE CITY - One would think it'd be hard to lose somebody who stands 7 feet tall, but you sure could say Timberwolves center Darko Milicic got lost in the joyous tumult of his team's buzzer-beating victory over the Clippers in Los Angeles on Friday night.
Kevin Love's deep, winning three-point shot and Ricky Rubio's fourth-quarter play received all the highlight reel love, but it was Milicic's active, physical defensive play against Clippers star Blake Griffin -- not to mention his two blocked shots on Griffin or a 22-point scoring night -- that left Wolves coach Rick Adelman calling him "a real difference maker."
Milicic even seemed to play a little angry, both muscling up Griffin at every turn and abusing the rim with four -- count 'em, four -- slam dunks on Friday.
"That's what he has to do," Adelman said. "He's got to be aggressive. We need him to play that way every night."
Milicic has driven Wolves fans crazy with his insistence on scoring with little flip shots around the basket when he seemingly could easily dunk the ball. Far too often, those shots come bouncing right back at him. On Friday, he left no room for doubt.
"The finger roll kinda didn't work for me, so I tried that," said Milicic, who drew undersized center Al Jefferson as his defensive assignment Saturday. "It works, huh?"
Big Al weighs in Everybody has an opinion on Love's contract situation. So former teammate Jefferson expressed his before Saturday's game about whether Love should get a four-year or five-year extension at a maximum salary surpassing $15 million a season.
"I don't know what Minnesota is waiting on signing that extension," said Jefferson, who shares the same agent with Love. "Why not give him five? He deserves it. I know he's going to get it [a maximum-sized contract] somewhere. I think at the end of the day it ought to work out."
