The Wolves' fan site Canis Hoopus thinks a broken nose could cost Minnesota the glass on Sunday. "Should Beringer miss this game, even with the Jazz front court depleted, the Wolves will struggle to get necessary extra possessions," Matthew Harren wrote in the Canis Hoopus preview. We'd love to believe that. Friday night in New Orleans says otherwise, and the glass in Minneapolis comes down to Will Hardy and whether he plays Mo Bamba.
That's the question our Mavericks recap left on the table: if the other team lives on the offensive glass, play somebody who boxes out. Nobody lives there like Minnesota. The Wolves have 150 offensive rebounds in 10 games, 15.0 a game by our count of the NBA.com box scores, first in the league on ESPN's team stats. Dallas just took 21 off us.
Seventeen without him
Joan Beringer, Minnesota's 19-year-old backup center, took an elbow to the nose in the second quarter in New Orleans and didn't come back, per NBC Sports. He played 7:02. Minnesota finished with 17 offensive rebounds anyway. Trey Lyles, a 6-9 forward, played 29 minutes in his place and got four of them. Rudy Gobert had three, and so did Jaden McDaniels and Jaylen Clark.
That night is how the Wolves rebound all season. Gobert, the former Jazzman, averages 11.8 rebounds. He and Beringer have 70 of the 150 offensive boards between them, so more than half come from everybody else: McDaniels has 18, Jonathan Kuminga 15, Lyles and Ayo Dosunmu 11 apiece. Per minute, Beringer is the scariest of them, 33 in 165 minutes, and he'd be a real loss. But Minnesota sends bodies from every spot, and a mask on one guy doesn't change that.
The NBA's official injury report, posted at 8 p.m. ET Saturday (6 p.m. MT), has Beringer questionable with a nasal fracture, and Canis Hoopus has him coming back in a mask and making "Mo Bamba look like Less Bamba." We'd like to see him try it with Bamba on the floor.
Hardy already said it
After the Nov. 2 loss in San Antonio, Hardy talked about his backup center. "Mo has been terrific in his minutes and on both sides of the glass," he said, per Eric Spyropoulos's Jazz.com takeaways. Bamba left that game with a leg injury and was questionable in New Orleans with a right ankle sprain, but he played 14:45 there and wasn't on the injury report for Dallas. Then he didn't play in Dallas at all. NBA.com's box score calls it a coach's decision, and Mavericks rookie Morez Johnson Jr. grabbed 10 offensive rebounds. Nobody has said why Bamba sat, and he isn't on the official report for Sunday either.
The numbers back Hardy's Nov. 2 words over his Dallas call. Bamba has 14 offensive rebounds in 88 minutes over five games. Jaxson Hayes, who has started the last five, has 17 in 200 minutes. Gobert has 37 in 268. In a small sample, Bamba is beating Gobert's rate, and Hayes is well behind both. Hayes also has 27 fouls in his 200 minutes. Bamba has six in 88.
The wrist and the five
Then there's Lauri Markkanen. He sprained his right wrist Oct. 26 against Memphis, per Brandon Judd of the Deseret News, missed one game and has played the four since, with 17 threes in the last three. Saturday's official report has him questionable, and ESPN's list has him day-to-day (read at 6 p.m. MT Saturday). In New Orleans, Jazz.com wrote, he played "extensive minutes at the five spot," and in Dallas he was our biggest man on the floor for most of the time Hayes sat. Against this team, that's our best shooter trying to keep Gobert off the glass. If the wrist keeps Lauri out, the small lineup goes with him, and so does any reason to leave Bamba on the bench.
Jaren Jackson Jr. (right MCL tear) and Jusuf Nurkić (right foot, second plantar plate tear) are out on the same report, along with two-way players Trey Alexander and Harrison Ingram, listed "G League - Two-Way." And Bamba alone doesn't fix five crashers. Ace Bailey and Josh Okogie have to put a body on McDaniels and Kuminga every trip.
Sunday in Minneapolis
Tip is 5 p.m. MT at Target Center in Minneapolis, on KJZZ and KSL 97.5 FM (schedule), the last stop of a four-game road trip. We're 1-8, 15th in the West, 0-4 on the road and seven losses deep. Minnesota is 7-3 and sixth with three straight wins, starting an eight-game home stand. The Wolves are missing Anthony Edwards (right knee arthroscopy) and Donte DiVincenzo (right Achilles repair) and still have the best point differential in the league, plus-10.7 a game, per ESPN. DraftKings has Minnesota by 11.5, per ESPN, as of Saturday evening.
Nobody has announced starters. Friday's NBA.com box scores had Keyonte George, Darryn Peterson, Bailey, Markkanen and Hayes for us, and LaMelo Ball, Dosunmu, McDaniels, Kuminga and Gobert for them.
Timberwolves 116, Jazz 104. If Bamba plays, the glass gets close. The ball still beats us: we've turned it over 156 times in nine games, 17.3 a night, and Minnesota has forced 158 turnovers in 10, both our counts. What would make us wrong is Markkanen's wrist holding up and the threes falling. We shoot 32.3 percent from three as a team (108-of-334, our count), and he hit eight of our 15 in Dallas.
The number we'll check in the recap is Minnesota's offensive rebounds on the NBA.com team line. They average 15.0. If Bamba plays 20 minutes and they still get 15, we were wrong about Bamba. If he sits again, we were wrong about Hardy.
Take note.
Sources: NBA.com box scores for all nine Jazz games and all 10 Timberwolves games this season (offensive rebounds, turnovers and three-point shooting from the team lines; Bamba's, Hayes's, Gobert's, Beringer's, Lyles's, McDaniels's, Kuminga's, Dosunmu's and Clark's minutes, rebounds and fouls; Markkanen's threes; Gobert's rebounds per game; Bamba's coach's decision in the Nov. 6 Mavericks game; Minnesota's Nov. 6 Pelicans game for Beringer's minutes and every offensive rebound; Friday's starters for both teams; all totals our count); NBA.com's Timberwolves roster for Beringer's and Lyles's age, height and position; NBA.com standings for both records and conference places; the NBA official injury report, 8 p.m. ET Nov. 7, for every Jazz and Timberwolves status; ESPN's injury list (read 6 p.m. MT Nov. 7) for Markkanen's day-to-day entry, and ESPN's standings and team stats for Minnesota's offensive rebounding and point differential ranks; Eric Spyropoulos on Jazz.com (Spurs takeaways, Nov. 2, for Hardy's quote on Bamba and Bamba's leg injury; Pelicans preview for Bamba's questionable tag; Mavericks preview for Markkanen at the five in New Orleans); Brandon Judd, Deseret News, on Markkanen's wrist; Matthew Harren, Canis Hoopus, for both quotes, Beringer's possible mask and the eight-game home stand; NBC Sports on Beringer's injury; our Mavericks recap for the question and Markkanen's minutes as our biggest man in Dallas; the line from DraftKings via ESPN.