OKC Thunder howl in Twin Cities – 5 takeaways from dominant victory

Rebounding:

As Lawrence George’s article tomorrow morning highlights a key area the OKC Thunder didn’t necessarily address in the offseason was defensive rebounding. On this evening OKC were absolutely dominate on the glass. But for two garbage time rebounds by Josh Okogie at 1:31 and  Keita Bates Diop with 7.5 seconds remaining in fourth the Thunder would’ve held a plus 20 margin on the glass.

By night’s end the variance was 18 with the OKC Thunder out rebounding Minnesota 57-39. The variance on the offensive glass was 16 to 6 and the area of biggest concern (defensive glass) was won 41 to 33.

Patrick Patterson was arguably the most impressive with all nine of his boards coming on the defensive glass. Adams had to deal with keeping Karl-Anthony Towns in check, but still managed to grab 13 rebounds with seven coming on the offensive glass. The other two impressive performances in this area came from rookie Hamidou Diallo who snared six and Nerlens Noel who had nine boards and like Adams was effective on both ends with four offensive boards.