MIAMI — Three thoughts from Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen after the Jazz's one point loss to the Heat.

1. Derrick Favors' All-Star-level performance

Without Rudy Gobert in the lineup due to a sprained ankle, Derrick Favors was going to have to step up in order for the Jazz to have a chance.

He did to an incredible degree, having one of the best games of his career. He finished with 25 points, 12 rebounds, 7 blocks (!), 3 steals, and 2 assists. After the game, David Locke pointed out how unique that statline really is:

Derrick Favors joins Anthony Davis as the only player since 2001 to have 25 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals and 7 blocks in a game. — David Locke (@Lockedonsports) November 13, 2015

When Favors wasn't in the game, the Jazz's defense cratered. In those 8 minutes, the Jazz allowed the Heat to shoot 10-12 from the field, for 83%. They were outscored 25-13. It was as simple as that: with Favors in, the Jazz were good, without him, they were bad.

Favors is wildly underrated nationally. First of all, he somehow didn't make the 34 man Olympic roster, whereas such talents as Mason Plumlee and Tobias Harris did. That's ridiculous: Favors is a 22-23 PER player, who makes an impact on both ends of the floor, with a fantastic roll game and a pretty effective post player. He also rebounds quite well. Plumlee and Harris are one-way talents.

If he keeps this up (and it's worth pointing out that Favors' campaign isn't wildly better than his 2014-15 season), he deserves dark-horse All-Star contention. It's going to be difficult to make in the Western Conference, with all of its tremendous big men, but he deserves to be named among them.

2. Shooting struggled

Here's the Jazz's shooting chart against Miami:

Oh no. There is so much red here. In the end, the Jazz got only 33 uncontested looks compared to 56 contested ones: that's a pretty impressive ratio for the Heat defense. The bigger problem is that they didn't make any of the uncontested jumpers: shooting only 9 for 33 (27.3 percent) as a team when there was no defender within 3.5 feet.

The funny thing is that this comes just two days after the Jazz's best offensive performance of the season, putting up 114 points against the normally stingy Cavaliers. Quin Snyder likes to say that the Jazz's offensive margin of error is so small, tonight was a good example of that.

Usually these critical points end with something the Jazz could have done better in order to avoid this problem in the future, but, quite frankly, a streaky shooting team might just be what this Jazz team is. They have no really dependable shooters on the roster, at least not with Hayward struggling as he has early in the season. Beyond that, Hood, Burke, Ingles, and Burks have all shown only stretches of being good jump-shooters; none of those players have ever had a full season of efficient shooting.

It's still a make or miss league: Thursday night, the Jazz missed.

3. Slow starts

The Jazz got out to another slow start, starting down 9-0 before Quin Snyder called a timeout. That's continued somewhat of a trend recently: the Jazz got out to a 9-3 deficit against Memphis, 20-9 against Denver, 19-11 against Portland, and 28-21 against Indiana.

Normally, when beginning games is a struggle, you would look to change the starting lineup. But that lineup has actually been really effective, especially defensively overall: They outscore opponents by 10.3 points per 100 possessions. Furthermore, the lineups you'd think of starting instead (i.e., replacing Raul Neto with Trey Burke, or Rodney Hood with Alec Burks) have performed worse so far this season.

It may just be a focus thing, and maybe an awareness of the problem will make it go away. But so far, it has been a problem: if the Jazz start more efficiently, they'll have a much better outcome in the end.

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