With all due respect to Dwight Howard (13.8), Tim Duncan (10.7), Emeka Okafor (10.1) and Yao Ming (9.9), it’s my belief that the NBA rebound is one of the most overrated stats in basketball.

The thought occurred to me the other night when I was watching a second-round playoff game between Houston and Los Angeles. On back-to-back-to-back possessions, I saw Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher sky, scrap and scrum for a defensive rebound in the first half. I was shocked.

In many ways, I think the three consecutive possessions demonstrate perfectly what playoff basketball in the NBA is all about. Like the hard foul, the loud crowd or the intensity and drama of a Game 7, things are amplified in the playoffs. And rebounding is no different.

Guys value every possession of the playoffs. Be it Game 1 of the first round or Game 7 of the Finals, postseason possessions mean something. This is where legends are made and rings are won. It’s no wonder guys go to the boards with a little more passion this time of the season.

That’s not the case in the regular season, though, and that’s why I don’t put much stock into rebounding numbers.

After every missed shot during the regular season, it seems like there are three or four defenders waiting for the rebound. Usually, two or three of them will go up together and one of them easily will grab the missed shot without much fight from the offense.

Not exactly what comes to mind when I think world-class effort.

I’d say the aforementioned scenario still happens at least 50 percent of the time in the playoffs, but there is noticeable improvement.

I get it that these guys have far more strength and are far more athletic than your average ballplayer, but maybe that’s why I’m not impressed. I’ll admit that this might be like the “NBA players don’t play defense” debate we had in this blog last week; when things come so easily for such superior athletes, it tends to look less than spectacular to those of us watching at home.

But come on. When you’re the only one who even goes for the rebound, is it that hard to grab it?

Think about it. An assist gets a teammate a bucket. A steal gets your team an extra possession. A turnover costs your team a possession. A block prevents points. And points, of course — enough of them, anyway — win ballgames.

At times, rebounds can be incredibly important — particularly offensive rebounds. But outside of a few crucial, back-to-the-wall possessions in the playoffs, we just don’t see rebounding in the pros the way we do at other levels.

There are a number of reasons for it, not the least of which is the 24-second shot clock and the speed of NBA offenses.

When a shot goes up, each NBA offensive player has to make a decision: crash the boards or get back on D. More times than not the right decision is to get back. That increases the odds on defense, therein prolonging one’s stay on the court.

Outside of speed and shot clock, there are other factors at play here. Unlike the relentless worker in the Friday morning pick-up game at the Rec Center — we’ll call him Jesse Newell — NBA guards and forwards don’t stand much of a chance of outworking the towers that hang out in the paint for a rebound. I’m not saying that’s a good reason to stay off the boards, but I understand.

Here’s the deal, I respect and admire the heck out of the select few who hung around this game at its highest level and perfected the art of rebounding. The list of names of guys who practiced the craft instead of relying on athleticism and a lucky bounce is short and that’s just one of the reasons that rebounding statistics should not be regarded as highly as other categories.