DETROIT — Here are KSL.com's Utah Jazz writer Andy Larsen's three thoughts after the Jazz lost their season-opening game by a score of 92-87 Wednesday night.

1. Jazz come back with terrific D, but then lose it in critical possession

Detroit's Reggie Jackson hit a big three when Raul Neto went under a pick and roll, extending the Pistons' lead to 6 with 3:32 left in the game. From that point on, the Jazz didn't allow the Pistons to score for over 3 minutes. That's six possessions in a row where the Jazz didn't allow a point, and ultimately, the Jazz took the lead with 23 seconds to go.

But then once they got the lead, they were too cavalier defensively on their very next possession. Rodney Hood allowed Reggie Jackson to get an easy layup in just 6 seconds, and from there, the Jazz never scored again. Here's that play:

Reggie Jackson with the huge lay up!!! #Pistonspic.twitter.com/raKiXPdXzB — Pistons (2-0) (@PistonsNetwork) October 29, 2015

Yes, there was a later chance for Burks and Hood to tie the game, but that's when the Jazz had the best chance to make this win theirs: with a lead, going against an offense that had been sputtering for the last few minutes. Instead, Hood trailed on the play from the beginning.

That's one of the downsides of playing a bigger wing against a smaller, quicker point guard: you can get blow-bys. But Hood had been doing a great job prior to that. My guess: he probably thought Jackson wasn't going to try to score that quickly, and fell asleep, just a step, on Jackson's hesitation move.

2. Trey Burke really struggled, while Raul Neto shined

I've been writing about this pair so frequently, and I swear I'm going to diversify, but tonight the difference between the two point guards was glaring. Neto finished with 8 points and 3 assists in his 26 minutes, the team was a +12 while he was in the game. Meanwhile, Burke finished scoreless, with 1 assist, in his 15 minutes. He was -15 on the game, and didn't play in the fourth quarter.

"Now wait!", you may say. "One game plus minus stats are notoriously unreliable! And Neto had the advantage of playing with the starters, didn't he?"

This is true. However, the starters didn't have stellar plus-minuses. Hayward was +1, Favors put up a -3, and Gobert was a +1. So Neto was able to succeed not only due to his time on the floor with the starters.

"But even then, Andy! This is a serious misuse of statistics! And/or, I don't believe in stats as a useful indicator of gameplay! Watch the game, nerd!"

All right, let's do some scouting.

The reason Trey Burke's plus-minus was poor was his defense in relatively simple pick-and-roll actions by Steve Blake. Blake is 35 years old. He shouldn't be getting this much separation from these actions.

Burke can't get beaten this easily by Steve Blake play #1: pic.twitter.com/yxmrw78qQr — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) October 29, 2015

This one, Burke does a good job of sniffing through the first screen. But then he anticipates the second one, is caught leaning, then Blake drives past him. Gobert comes over to help, away from the much more dangerous Andre Drummond, and Drummond gets the dunk. In some ways, Gobert probably shouldn't have helped as much as he did on this. But ideally, Burke probably should have prevented the initial dribble penetration in the first place.

Trey Burke can't be beaten this easily by Steve Blake (okay, and a screen) play #2: pic.twitter.com/Ya8sUiM3xn — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) October 29, 2015

On this one, Burke has to navigate a screen by Anthony Tolliver. He gets caught on the screen relatively easily, fine, that's something that happens to every guard. But after getting beat, Burke gives up, and doesn't sink in to help with the play. Had he, he could have prevented the easy dump-off pass for two.

It was this defensive difference that pushed Snyder to play Neto in the 4th quarter over Burke, and finally, choose not to play a point guard at all in the game's final minutes. Trailing, he couldn't afford to let the Pistons score easy buckets.

It's discouraging. The preseason was really promising for Burke, and maybe the fact that it was game 1, or that his parents were in the stands, or a number of other factors influenced his play tonight. It's only one game, after all. But it did make sense that Snyder chose to start Neto over Burke.

3. Jazz need to get more efficient shots

Perhaps the most worrying thing about this game was the three-point shooting. The Jazz only shot 12 threes, and missed all but two of them. Somehow, it was Neto, who shot just 20 percent from three in Spain, who made 100 percent of the Jazz's threes tonight.

That won't continue. But the Jazz need to be able to get more open looks from the outside if they want to have a viable offense. Hood was the main culprit in shooting them, going 0-7, but to my eye, they were good shots anyway, they just didn't go down.

More concerning was the lack of other 3 point shots. Hayward only took two, missed both. Joe Ingles took one. That's it. Alec Burks, especially, needs to find a way to take shots from beyond the arc. Burks took just six preseason threes in seven games, none tonight. He certainly got to the rim effectively, but defenses will start sagging off of him if that trend continues, hurting the Jazz's already tenuous spacing.

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