One Clear Positive and Negative From Timberwolves’ Win vs. Jazz
In this story:
Coming off another strong fourth quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans, LaMelo Ball and the Minnesota Timberwolves came home with eight straight games at Target Center on the schedule.
Even without Anthony Edwards, the lengthy home stand gives Minnesota the opportunity to stack wins and keep pace in a hellacious Western Conference so that when the travel schedule inevitably gets tougher, there is a built-in margin of error.
Positive: Rebounding
The Timberwolves out-rebounded the Jazz 45 to 37. So far this season, the Wolves rank 5th in rebounding percentage, a sizeable jump from their finish of 11th a season ago.
The Wolves, so far this season, have largely done a good job on the defensive glass, which is an especially positive sign given that rebounding was seen as one of the team's weaknesses following the trades of both Julius Randle and Naz Reid.
The Wolves gained some size when they brought in Jonathan Kuminga, but they were still relatively undersized at the power forward position. To keep opponents from killing them on the offensive glass, they would need to have an increased focus on that area...