HOUSTON — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 137-110 loss to the Houston Rockets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. James Harden goes off, thoroughly dominates Jazz

James Harden ended up with 56 points, shooting 19-25 from the field, 7-8 from three, and 11-12 from the free throw line. All of those are crazy numbers, and Harden had a special, special game. It was his career high.

But not only that, Harden added 13 assists, which then led to 35 more points for the Rockets. He had his stamp on every single possession and just led to incredibly efficient offense for Houston.

The Jazz tried a lot of different things to defend Harden. At various points, they had Ricky Rubio, Joe Ingles, Rodney Hood, Alec Burks, Thabo Sefolosha, and Donovan Mitchell guard him. They tried "weaking" his screen plays to his right hand, and Harden got back to his left to hit that mid-range stepback jumper.

Jazz try to force Harden to his right... but it's very easy for him to snake back to the middle pic.twitter.com/bDrRzmuICs — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 6, 2017

They tried pushing him toward one side on angle pick and rolls, and then they'd flip the screen and put the Jazz in a tough spot. They tried switching his screens, and he'd cook whatever big ended up guarding him. And they even tried to just deny him the ball for a couple of possessions, but he either went through screens to get the ball anyway, or just lingered way outside of the play to let the Rockets play 4-on-4.

"Disappointed in our group and our performance," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said after the game. "There wasn't enough resistance and there wasn't enough toughness. We made so many defensive mistakes. There wasn't a collective resolve."

Here's the thing: Harden's game is all about making opponents make tough decisions. What the Jazz didn't do was make it difficult for Harden to get to the spots where he forced those tough decisions. If they're going to chase him around screens, they need to stay more attached on those screens. They probably need to make it more difficult for those screens to happen.

Basically, this:

Coming into the game, the Jazz were ranked third overall defensively, but this performance moves them all the way to 11th.

2. What about the threes?

The 56-point performance by Harden would have been more acceptable if it weren't for the 3-point shooting by the entire Rockets team. Some of those threes came directly from Harden assists, caused as the Jazz tried to manage the Harden explosion.

But honestly, the Rockets' 3-point shooting was insane, going 23-of-39 (59 percent) from downtown. The Rockets usually shoot a ton of threes: their season low is 38, and they even shot 57 in one regulation game this year against Charlotte.

I mean, look at this shot chart!

Not only did the Rockets shoot 23-39 from downtown, they were 21-33 from the long-distance threes, or 64 percent. Look, I’ve watched excellent 3-point NBA shooters in practice from distance hit about that many, with nobody around. To do it in a game is an incredible accomplishment.

Here's where I get nerdy on you: the statistical evidence is that good 3-point defending teams force teams to take fewer threes. Good 3-point defending teams don'tappear to make a big impact on whether or not those threes go in, just whether or not they're taken at all. Weird, right?

So that the Jazz forced the Rockets to take near their season low in 3-point attempts means, in part, that their defense wasn't as bad as it appears. Against Memphis, the Rockets shot 9-38 from three. Going 23-39 means that the Jazz realistically had no chance to win the game, no matter how well Harden scored inside the arc.

3. Hey, Derrick Favors made two threes!

There weren't a lot of positives in that game, obviously. Here's a couple:

• Donovan Mitchell led the team in scoring, again. His point total has now either equalled or exceeded the number of field goals he's taken in the last five games, that didn't happen in any of his first five games.
• Derrick Favors made two threes: one was kind of a lucky desperation pull-up three at the end of the shot clock, but the other was a nice corner shot in rhythm.

Derrick Favors hits a three! pic.twitter.com/R6nF4TuuzV — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 6, 2017

Favors is a free agent at the end of the year, and it's clear that his offensive skillset is kind of an awkward fit for the roster. Snyder isn't a fan of post-ups or mid-range shots, and Favors best skills of rolling to the rim and rebounding have been awkward fits next to Gobert at times.

But if he's focused, he's a pretty impressive perimeter defender. He really saved the Jazz's bacon in the first round series against the Clippers last year with Gobert out thanks to that skill. Him adding this 3-point shot to his repertoire would be a big step forward, even if it's probably not enough to make him a stretch big.

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