SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 88-72 loss to the L.A. Clippers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz offense completely breaks down against Clippers

Literally last week, literally five and seven days ago, the Jazz had the two best offensive performances of this decade. And now, tonight, they had one of the worst. They put up 72 points in 92 possessions, good for a 78.6 defensive rating that sets it apart as the worst home offensive performance since 2005.

And on Valentine's Day eve, the Jazz's shot chart was very festive.

Look at that reddish-pinkish hue! If the shot chart was a box of chocolates, every chocolate inside would be filled with spiky hazelnuts or something like that. Just insert whatever chocolate you avoid in your usual box of chocolate eating routine.

So, the big question is why the Jazz were so bad. The players seemed to coalesce around the idea that they missed shots, and sometimes variance does that to you. For example, Hayward said "Well tonight, we missed shots. Pretty simple. Don't think we got as many good looks as we have been getting, but we got some good looks, open looks, didn't hit them." I am occasionally convinced by this argument, but I am unmoved by it tonight.

I thought the Jazz's coaching staff had a much more telling explanation:

"They had a lot more resolve on their defensive end than we had on our offensive end," Snyder said. "If we were to make a couple of shots, it would have just masked the fact that we didn't have any toughness on the offensive end in order to execute."

The Jazz did really struggle with the ability of the Clippers to switch on pick and roll, limiting penetration inside. But once the Jazz were presented with that, they did nothing to take advantage of those matchups, which is hard work. You have to gain an advantage and then use it to either score immediately, or get an advantage for someone else. Instead, the Jazz just took bad shots late in the shot clock all night long.

And then, after the game, Snyder challenged his team. "I think we're a team that we can talk about being better and being relevant, but at this point we're relevant and no more than that. If there is something that we held back, it shouldn't have been tonight. You could have an explanation for some games, but this is a game that I'm disappointed." Full mad dad mode right there.

2. Jazz lose the big man matchups

One big question I had coming into tonight's game was how the big man matchups would play out. Blake Griffin is a fantastic player, but Derrick Favors has good size against him. And Rudy Gobert's trying to challenge DeAndre Jordan's title as the best shotblocking center in the game, and he believes he should be an All-Star over Jordan.

The Jazz lost both of these matchups soundly. Griffin had 26 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists, he also had no turnovers while doing a whole lot of the Clippers' ballhandling. Favors led the Jazz in scoring, but still only had 13 points, three rebounds, and one assist. In Favors' defense, not much of Griffin's scoring happened while Favors was in the game, but the offense wasn't working with both him and Gobert in the game. (It didn't really work the other times either, but you understand why Snyder tried different things.)

The stats show that Gobert and Jordan had similar games: 10 points, 14 rebounds for Gobert compared to Jordan's 13, one assist each. The reality was that Jordan dominated Gobert pretty much throughout. Jordan went through Gobert for his baskets, and Gobert missed a bunch of layups and easy looks. And in terms of rim protection, Jordan blocked more shots and allowed a lower Jazz percentage.

That's worrying, because the Jazz need to at least hang close on these matchups in order for the team to have a chance in what looks like the likely 4 vs. 5 playoff series this year. That they got beaten so badly while the Clippers were missing Chris Paul is a bad sign for how that playoff series would go. That is, if the Jazz stop losing games.

3. The woes of Trey Lyles

Trey Lyles has been playing his way out of the rotation recently with just horrific play on both ends of the floor. It used to be that his defense was a liability that could be counterbalanced by his offensive abilities, but right now, his offense is a net negative too.

He was 0-9 tonight in playing 13 minutes, and I suppose that I don't have to tell you that missing all of your shots is bad. But I'm more upset about his decision making on the floor: he's just not passing the ball ever, focused on getting points for himself. Like, check out this play.

Trey Lyles post-up from the 3-point line! pic.twitter.com/ZUgAlfsIsG — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 14, 2017

Lyles gets the ball in the corner, and immediately begins posting up his defender from the 3-point line. Admittedly, his opponent is a small forward, but is only 15 pounds lighter than himself. Finding himself unable to make much progress in backing him down the full 23 feet, he turns around and takes a wildly contested turnaround and fadeaway shot that was either blocked, or worse, not blocked. It's hard to tell.

I like that Lyles continued to take open 3-point looks while he was struggling, but taking bad looks like this, early in the shot clock, well, that's just selfish. He needs to realize that what made him a promising player was fitting into an offensive system as a playmaker and catch-and-shoot big, not a my-turn scorer.

Lyles didn't play in the first half tonight, but Snyder turned to him in the second when everything was falling apart. The coach didn't find the help he was looking for.

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