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."

When told that the Wolves might be trying to get Love to sign for four years so they can keep their five-year "designated player" slot open, perhaps for Rubio, Jefferson said, "Ricky's a great player, but I don't think he's going to be a five-year, $80 million guy. Maybe I'll eat my words later, but I don't think he is at this time."

Popular guy Love said he was inundated with tweets/text messages/e-mails on Friday night and Saturday after he hit that game-winning, buzzer-beating shot that led ESPN's "SportsCenter" for hours and hours.

"It was crazy," he said. "Everybody was texting me saying I was trending worldwide on Twitter. That was pretty cool."

He could do so again by Wednesday, if he signed that $78 million-plus deal. He said before Saturday's game that he had no news about a possible agreement.

Rick's take No word yet if Shaquille O'Neal will come to the TNT set on Thursday in his undies, like he said he'd do if Griffin didn't outplay Love on Friday night.

"That's why you don't listen to a lot of what he says," Adelman said. "I don't really listen to that show much. There's got to be other things on."

Etc. • Milicic left Saturday's game and went to the locker room in the second quarter with a sore hip but returned to start the third quarter.

• Adelman said he is hopeful that guard Martell Webster and center Brad Miller will be ready to play some soon after the team returned home from Utah and both had a chance to be re-evaluated before Monday's game against Houston.

• The NBA on Saturday fined Jazz forward Derrick Favors $25,000 for flinging the ball across the court and into the crowd during Thursday's home loss to Dallas.