MINNEAPOLIS  — Success and improvement breed confidence, a key to fending off frustration. Kevin Love has followed that formula and progressed to the point where his clutch contributions toward big wins are expected by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Love scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws with 0.1 seconds left, to lift the Timberwolves to a 92-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.

“I can finish games. I can close games. But it has a lot to do with my teammates. They’ve had my back,” said Love, who missed 13 of his first 15 shots. “They say if you keep putting yourself in that situation, you’re going to eventually get comfortable with it.”

With the Target Center crowd of 18,759 standing and roaring, Love drove to the basket off an inbound play with his head down and tempted Andre Iguodala to reach in and try to swipe the ball away from the baseline. The whistle sounded, Love walked to the line, and he calmly swished both shots.

“Playing three quarters of basketball like that in the past, I don’t think I was mature enough to overcome that and persevere through that,” said Love, who also grabbed his usual 15 rebounds.

Ricky Rubio had a career-high 22 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. His backup, J.J. Barea, added 14 points to help offset another strong game by Jrue Holiday of the Sixers. Holiday had 20 points on 10-for-20 shooting, plus five rebounds and three steals, but the league’s best defensive team again failed to come through with the last-second stop it needed.

Coach Doug Collins listed overtime losses to New Jersey and Denver, and a one-point defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers in his lament over this one.

“It’s a shame we haven’t been able to get that critical stop. Our guys played very hard,” Collins said.

Lou Williams, who got it going in the second half after Philadelphia’s leading scorer attempted only three shots before the break, tried a crossover step-back jumper from the top of the key with Martell Webster in his face that rimmed out. Love grabbed the rebound with less than 4 seconds left, setting up the final possession.

The Sixers weren’t pleased by the foul call, but Collins declined to speculate on it. Elton Brand said there was “no need to get into fines or anything.” Iguodala said he thought he forced a jump ball.

“Both teams played good basketball. It was a competitive game. It just came down to the last play,” said Iguodala, who had 13 points.

Nikola Pekovic had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Timberwolves (16-16), who notched their third three-game winning streak of the season to move back to .500. They play at Denver on Monday night, starting a stretch of 16 out of 23 games on the road. Coach Rick Adelman again shortened his rotation to eight, and the Wolves improved to 6-3 with Pekovic and Love in the starting lineup.

“We just showed we can play with anybody, and we didn’t play on our level,” Pekovic said.