SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 101-89 win over the Brooklyn Nets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz stars elevate when Jazz needed them most

The Jazz's offense was really, really bad for large stretches of this game. With just over five minutes left in the third quarter, the Jazz called timeout, down nine, with the Nets leading 62-53. They'd scored just three points in the half, were shooting under 35 percent for the game, and just generally didn't look good.

And then Gordon Hayward took over. Hayward scored 12 points in those last five minutes of the quarter, and brought the Jazz up to take the lead to finish the quarter. Overall, Hayward finished with 30 points, going 9-18 from the floor and 9-9 from the FT line.

.@GordonHayward had 30 points (9/18 fg, 9/9 ft), 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. 📽#NBAVote#TakeNote#UTAatBKNpic.twitter.com/L6I338xcfX — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 3, 2017

Hayward, typically, gave credit for the comeback not to himself, but to the Jazz's defense. "We guarded. We gave ourselves a chance."

And honestly, he might be more right than not. Allowing 37 points in the second half is what made the difference for the Jazz. Again, Rudy Gobert deserves credit. He finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds on the night. His matchup, Brook Lopez, finished with just 14 and six. This, in particular, is a nice offensive move, where Gobert catches the ball, jab steps to fake one way, and then drives the other to get the and-one.

That size 20 fake tho...#UTAatBKNpic.twitter.com/sQyjB11y6E — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 3, 2017

The Jazz are now the fourth-best team in the league in the fourth quarter, after struggling so much there last season. And it's in large part thanks to their stars, Hayward and Gobert.

2. How did the Jazz do against five-out offense?

I think a lot of times we default to seeing matchups in terms of records alone. Like, the Jazz are a 21-13 team, and the Nets are 8-24, so the Jazz should have no problem in winning the game, right?

But then you start to think about how the Nets play, and it's actually kind of a tricky setup for the Jazz. On offense, the Nets' starting lineup generally plays with a lot of spacing. Trevor Booker's not shooting a ton from the 3-point line, but he likes being out there, then coming inside to crash the boards.

And then Brook Lopez, the Nets' center, actually leads the team in 3-point shots made. That means that the Nets can play five-out offense, a staple of the Atlanta teams where both Jazz head coach Quin Snyder and Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson sat on the bench just three seasons ago. Lopez's 3-point shooting also brings Gobert out of the paint, which isn't what the Jazz prefer.

The biggest Nets offensive weakness is their turnover problem, where they're second-worst in the league at giving the ball to their opponents. But the Jazz are actually the second-worst in the league at forcing turnovers, too, so that doesn't play into Utah's strengths. Brooklyn is the fastest team in the league, while the Jazz are the slowest. And finally, the Nets have actually been decent at home this year: 7-8 in Barclays.

But you have to say, the Jazz did a pretty good job. Booker and Lopez ended up with a good number of points, but the Nets scored 94.8 points per 100 possessions in the 27 minutes they played together. The Jazz will take that. They also forced 15 Nets turnovers. That's below their average, but more than the Jazz's average forced, so they'll take that.

Joe Johnson was key to this. All of the Jazz's power forwards were pretty terrible in their own ways tonight; Derrick Favors didn't seem like he could move, Boris Diaw didn't deal well with Booker's speed and made bad choices on offense, and Lyles didn't defend or shoot well. As soon as the Jazz put in Johnson, the game turned around.

I bring up this versatility especially because we could see playoff opponents try to vary their style of play to make Gobert and the Jazz uncomfortable. All of Golden State, San Antonio, and Houston have convincing small-ball, five-out lineups that they'll likely switch to, and the Jazz will need to be able to excel against those. Tonight, they showed that they could at least hang with that style of play.

3. Alec Burks back

Alec Burks played just three minutes and seven seconds tonight, but that's infinitely more than he's played so far this season, so it's worth a note. Burks was actually inserted into the game at the point guard position after Raul Neto struggled early, and he got the opportunity to finish out the first quarter and start the second.

Burks only touched the ball four times. He turned it over on a travel once when he got caught up in the air before deciding what to do with the ball, he missed a buzzer-beating shot, and then passed it twice. Burks was on a pretty strict minutes restriction anyway, but mostly, the Jazz just needed more of a sure thing from their bench in the second half.

Postgame, Snyder kind of regretted putting him in the game on the ball to end the quarter, saying that it was a tough spot for a guy who hadn't really experienced an NBA game at speed in seven months. I think that's fair, but also, Burks can definitely help the Jazz most by playing the point guard position right now, as long as Hill is out. A healthy Burks is a clear upgrade over Shelvin Mack and Raul Neto, but that's not the case with Joe Ingles.

The biggest question long-term with Burks is with his defensive integration into Snyder's system. We honestly haven't seen the Jazz be good defensively for long stretches with Burks playing minutes. In Burks' defense, that's mostly because we haven't seen him healthy for long stretches, and certainly not while Gobert was on the court. That's the biggest thing to watch for, perhaps after this month or so where Burks works himself back into his usual self.

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