Kuzma, who had 10 rebounds in a double-double, drew some praise from Krystko.
"His strength right now for us is to go in there, get some hands on balls and help us rebound," he said. "And collectively that's what I shared with our team. I think we're going to have to have a defensive focus with a lot of concentration on rebounding and putting bodies on guys because maybe we are a bit undersized."
While the defense wasn't suffocating on Thursday night (the Otters shot almost 42 percent from the perimeter in the first half), Utah was overpowering on the defensive glass, scooping up 45 of 56 possible defensive boards.