Though winning against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday hurt the Los Angeles Lakers' chances at the No. 2 overall pick in this year's draft, Sunday was about more than basketball.Star point guard D'Angelo Russell was hurting emotionally entering the game, as he had recently found out that his grandmother had passed away.However, Russell decided to play, and in a truly great moment for the young player, the ball found its way into his hands with the game on the line late in the fourth quarter.With the Lakers trailing 109-107, Russell launched a three-pointer as time expired, watching as it bounced up off the rim and then fell through to give his team a dramatic 110-109 victory:

Russell went into the stands immediately after the shot, hugging his family after a moment that clearly meant so much to him in the aftermath of his grandmother's death.

Following the game, Russell told ESPN.com that he was simply hoping for a win on Sunday and that hitting the game-winner was something he couldn't have imagined happening:

"I just wanted to win," said Russell. "Win the game, and winning shot, it's just God putting the cherry on top. The win would have been good enough."

Russell finished the game with 16 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals to help Los Angeles overcome huge efforts from Minnesota stars Karl-Anthony Towns (40 points, 21 rebounds) and Anthony Wiggins (41 points). Tyler Ennis scored a game-high 20 points for the Lakers off the bench.

Lakers coach Luke Walton said he felt Russell's game-winner was a cathartic moment for the young guard and is something he'll remember for the rest of his life:

"You could tell he was hurting," Walton said. "I could tell it was painful for him, and it wasn't easy to talk about, but you could see how much love he had for her when he was speaking about it, which was kind of awesome to see."

Russell is averaging 15.6 points, 4.8 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game for the Lakers in his second season in the league. He's shooting 40.5 percent from the floor and has hit 35.2 percent of his three-point attempts this year.

The Lakers improved to 25-55 on the season and now lead the last-place Phoenix Suns by 1.5 games with two games remaining in the regular season (at home against the New Orleans Pelicans and on the road against the Golden State Warriors).

The Suns, meanwhile, have only one game remaining (at Sacramento). If the Suns manage to win that game and the Lakers lose their remaining two contests, there will be a tie for the second-worst record in the NBA behind the Eastern Conference's Brooklyn Nets.

Fortunately for basketball fans, though, tanking wasn't on the minds of Russell and the Lakers on Sunday, and they provided us with one of the more touching moments of the season.