Rudy Gobert's importance to the Wolves couldn't be clearer after Monday's ejection

With 7:59 remaining in the third quarter, the Timberwolves and Suns were all squared up at 69 points apiece. It was then that Rudy Gobert made a dangerous defensive play, using his forearm/elbow to shove Suns center Mark Williams around his rib cage as he was flying uncontested for a dunk. The play was deemed a Flagrant 2, causing Gobert to be ejected from the game.

Minnesota ended up losing the game by three as Jaden McDaniels missed the potential game-tying 3-pointer at the end. That ended the Timberwolves' season-high winning streak at five games. Where the Wolves missed Gobert the most after his premature exit from the contest was his work on the offensive glass.

The Timberwolves struggled especially on the glass without Gobert

On the season, Gobert is averaging 3.5 offensive rebounds per game, putting him firmly in the top 10 in the league. Unfortunately for the Timberwolves, grabbing boards on the offensive end was few and far between after he was ejected, and many offensive possessions ended as one-and-done.

In the final nearly eight minutes of the third quarter without The Stifle Tower, Minnesota grabbed just 1 offensive rebound. That is the same amount they had in the final stanza, and that came with one second left after McDaniels’ miss. Donte DiVincenzo secured the ball, but by the time he dished out for another game-tying chance, time had already expired.

After Gobert exited, the team shot 5-11 for the rest of the third quarter and 8-18 in the fourth. That’s 16 missed shots, and only once did they give themselves another opportunity over the first 15 misses (that isn’t even counting the few times that the Timberwolves missed the second of two free throws). That one offensive rebound, by Naz Reid, saw Anthony Edwards connect on a 3-pointer after the team got another chance.

The Timberwolves are basically middle of the pack when it comes to their offensive rebounding. They rank 16th in the league, grabbing one after 30.9 percent of their misses.

Obviously, the offensive rebounding rate wasn’t close to that after Gobert was forced to leave Monday’s action. This was a game in which he was controlling the offensive glass as well. The 33-year-old had five of them in his 21 minutes.

Of course, Gobert's presence as a rim protector was also missed. While this is typically Gobert's main impact, his offensive rebounding was the main skill that was missed on Monday.

Gobert can’t be getting himself tossed from games, particularly when many of the key players outside of Anthony Edwards didn’t have their best shooting nights.