This is a famous quote about basketball,
Offence sells tickets, defences wins games, rebounding wins championships - Pat Summitt
In fact, if we try to translate the game of basketball into mathematics (very naively) we have the following equation.
Score advantagex=Possessionx×Probability of Scoringx−Possessiony×Probability of Scoringy=[out of boundsx+reboundx]×Probability of Scoringx−[out of boundsy+reboundy]×Probability of Scoringy=[out of boundsx+reboundx]×Probability of Scoringx−[out of boundsy+(total rebound−reboundx)]×Probability of ScoringyFrom the equation we can see that a good scoring team has a high probability to score, while a good defensive team reduces the opponents ability and probability to score. Yet, we can see that the rebound appears on both end where a rebound for team x is one less rebound for team y. Which modifies the number of possession giving more chance to attack and a potentially larger score advantage!
Of course, rebounds can be offensive and defensive and they are a function of your and your opponents scoring ability. The events are inter-connected and should be modelled as a chained event. Maybe I'll do that when I recover from my hang-over.