SACRAMENTO — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 112-82 win over the Sacramento Kings from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz pull away in game's final minutes thanks to good play from Boris Diaw and Shelvin Mack

Despite the 30-point victory, this game was legitimately worrisome for the Jazz late in the night. With two minutes left in the third quarter, the Jazz held just a 3-point lead. And then the Jazz went on a 44-17 run over the final 14 minutes to end up winning by 30. What changed the tide? Believe it or not, it was the play of Boris Diaw and Shelvin Mack, both pretty unlikely heroes.

French Connection 🇫🇷 #UTAatSACpic.twitter.com/yBaAftseOP — x-Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) March 30, 2017

Diaw has been pretty bad over the last week or so. In the last four games, he's played 61 minutes and the Jazz have been outscored by 60 points during those minutes. That's despite starting three of those, so he was playing most of the minutes with Rudy Gobert, Gordon Hayward, and other really good players.

Tonight, I thought he was legitimately helpful in the fourth quarter, taking and making good looks, making athletic plays, and creating open looks for his teammates. He ended up with just 11 points, nothing special, but it's during these moments (and when you consider the alternatives) that Diaw's playing time makes sense.

But the real story of the game was Shelvin Mack. Mack, I think, thrives on coming into an unstable situation and showing himself to be a class above the competition quickly. After all, that's what he did when he was first traded to Utah, when he immediately won the starting point guard spot after just one game coming off the bench.

He did it again tonight after 18 games in a row of not playing. Exum was really poor tonight: going scoreless on six shots, picking up four fouls and two turnovers. So instead, Snyder went to Mack for the majority of the point guard minutes and it worked really well. Mack showed off all of his skills, from his very good floater to quality attacking the paint, and even usually smart defense. He ended up with 14 points, but it wasn't an accident that he had a +31 when he was on the floor. He made that much of a difference.

I should also mention a bunch of other players that had their hand in Utah's last-quarter run: Rodney Hood made all five of his threes, Joe Ingles did all of the little things he normally does on the wing to get a game-high +32, Joe Johnson kept his cool, and Jeff Withey played some nice defense and also even finished at the rim three times.

It was a nice team win without George Hill, and it was really thanks to nearly everyone on the team stepping up and playing at the level they're capable of.

2. Dante Exum teaching moment

Quin Snyder did something you don't see very often at this level of basketball: he made a sub after just two minutes of play, taking out Dante Exum and putting in Shelvin Mack.

It was caused by this play.

Exum's turnover that caused Quin to pull him for a minute early: pic.twitter.com/0okAuClxuG — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 30, 2017

It's not good. Knowing that he'd be without his two first-choice point guards, Snyder preached ball security and playing defensively with Exum and Mack at shootaround today. Then, at the first opportunity, Exum got himself caught up in the air and turned the ball over.

When this happened, Snyder called Mack in, and as Exum went to the bench, he asked his assistants to scoot over, making room for Exum to sit right next to the head coach. I asked Snyder what he told Exum.

"I want Dante to be aggressive. I trust what he's doing defensively. When he's attacking, I want him to attack with that aggression," Snyder started. "But he's got to take care of the ball. That's true of any of our guys. Particularly if he's out there with Gordon and Rodney. I think he knows that and he's working at it, there's just a couple of plays that I'd have him be more conservative then try to make a play in a tough spot."

Exum spent only just over a minute on the bench, then went back in to finish the rest of his stint.

So, two separate questions: did it work? Well, Exum didn't exactly set the world on fire after the conversation. The Kings played 10 feet off of him, giving him space to shoot. He made the right play (shoot it!) but never made any of the shots. But, on the other hand, Exum also turned the ball over again only one more time, and on a completely different kind of play.

And, was it the right thing to do? Personally, I like these kind of teaching moments, where there's a quick conversation that happens and then the player goes back out to try to apply what he's learned. There's another line of thinking that goes like this, though:

Ultimately, I think it comes down to what the Jazz need most now. Right now, in the middle of a playoff race, they're prioritizing that Exum needs to stop turnovers that can incite runs over giving Exum reps to improve. In a different situation or a different season, giving Exum free reign and a lot of autonomy on the ball to try and learn on the court would probably be the right call.

3. The new Golden 1 Center

I went to Sacramento for this game, and it was my first opportunity to see the brand new Golden 1 Center, the Kings' brand-new downtown arena that just opened this season.

It's pretty cool. The best part of the whole thing is the grand entrance, which opens right out onto the lower bowl. It's beautiful.

But there's some other cool features too. The Kings pulled together a lot of local restaurants into the arena, essentially acting as landlords rather than purchasing catering. That means there are a lot of cool and unique food options inside the arena. In the upper bowl, one of those restaurants is right in the middle of the concourse, which means you kind of have to walk around a bar and tables in order to get around the whole arena.

The seats are steep, probably the league's only arena that has steeper seats than Vivint Arena's. That's both good and bad: there's a lot of stairs, but the view is closer horizontally to the court from nearly every seat.

Jazz executives have travelled to Sacramento to see the arena, trying to figure out which of the design choices they want to copy for Vivint Arena's renovation to be completed this offseason. Somewhat inspired by Sacramento, the Jazz will be making real efforts to make the concourse and bowl seem closer together by eliminating a few walls at the entrance. The locally-owned restaurants entering the arena is another similarity, too. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished product in Salt Lake City.

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