Coach hates the turnovers, loves rebounds

Phil Jackson handed out a compliment or two before getting to what irked him in the Lakers’ victory Friday over Minnesota.

The Lakers are making too many mistakes with the ball, carefree at inopportune times and lingering at 21st in the league with an average of 17.2 turnovers a game.

They committed 18 turnovers in a 107-93 victory over the Timberwolves, five by Kobe Bryant, four by Derek Fisher and six by typically cautious Luke Walton. Bryant is averaging 4.8 turnovers, well above his career average of 2.9.

“I’m still not happy with the turnover rate that we’re going at here,” Jackson said. “I think we have to stop being so risky in our risk-reward, especially in transition out there.”

It might be a warning of things to come. The Lakers play back-to-back road games against San Antonio and Houston this week before returning home to play Detroit on Friday. No sieve-like defenses among that trio.

“Our ball movement is great. . . . We just need to understand that some of the passes we might need to hold off on, get the offense set and make sure we get a good look,” center Chris Mihm said.

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Jackson wasn’t as upset about a different statistic.

The Lakers are eighth in the league in rebounding, taking an average of 45.4.

Andrew Bynum is averaging 9.8 rebounds and was one of three Lakers with 10 against Minnesota. The Lakers hadn’t had three players in double-digit rebounds since a January 2006 game.

“That’s very positive for us. . . . that would be maybe 100 games, 120 games [ago] perhaps,” Jackson said. “Andrew’s a guy that does gobble up those rebounds. If there’s a ball available, he’s going to get it, and I like that. And Lamar [Odom] out there helps us a lot on the boards too. That’s an important aspect of the game.”

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A victory over the winless Timberwolves didn’t exactly deserve a celebration, and Bryant was reserved afterward, as he had been throughout the first two weeks of the season.

“We are doing OK,” he said. “We’ve just got to continue to work hard. It’s such a long season. We are doing all right. We’ve just got to get everybody back healthy now. We’ve got Lamar back, and that’s a big step in the right direction. We’ve just got to get the rest of the guys out there.”

Kwame Brown (heel) and Maurice Evans (back) have sat out the last two games. They will be re-evaluated before Tuesday’s game against San Antonio.

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Bryant leads the league in scoring with 30.4 points a game and is third among all guards with 7.6 rebounds a game.

Sacramento guard Kevin Martin was second in scoring, averaging 27.8 points before Saturday’s games.

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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com