It happened just minutes into Denver’s eventual win over Minnesota: Kenneth Faried missed a shot in close to the rim and Kevin Garnett went up and grabbed the rebound.
With that KG had 11,409 defensive rebounds and he passed Karl Malone for the NBA’s all-time lead in that category. Through his two decades in the league, Garnett has always been strong on the defensive glass, grabbing 26 percent of his rebound opportunities there.
If you’re wondering how Garnett and Malone have more defensive boards than Wilt Chamberlain or Bill Russell, know that the NBA didn’t start keeping the defensive rebound stat until 1974.