SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 129-99 win over the Golden State Warriors from KSL.com Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. The Jazz beat the Warriors by 30

That is insane! While the Jazz's win tonight was not the biggest margin of defeat in the Warriors' championship era (Portland beat them by 32 in 2016), it was the second biggest. The Warriors had a mostly healthy roster (only Jordan Bell and Kevon Looney were out, both lower-rotation guys), two days off since their last game, nobody in foul trouble, and fully one-third of the Western Conference All-Star team available in their starting lineup.

In other words, the Warriors absolutely should have come out and won this game handily. But two factors combined to get the Jazz the huge win: the Jazz played extremely well for essentially all 48 minutes to keep the lead growing, and the Warriors came out with the most lackadaisical play of the Steve Kerr era.

Let's start with the quality play of the Jazz. We'll get into this more, but Utah had some of the best defensive possessions of the season against the incredibly difficult-to-guard Warriors. They began the game by getting out to a big lead against the Warriors' starters, and ended up outscoring the them by 11 points in the 13 minutes they were on the floor. They also found success by helping on the perimeter and forcing the only non-All Star, Zaza Pachulia, to make plays. He had five of the Warriors' first seven shots, and the other two were by Draymond Green. It's a big win if those are the Warriors who are shooting the ball — not Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson or Kevin Durant.

But it's usually the Death Lineup of the Warriors that confounds opponents: the Curry, Thompson, Durant, Green and Andre Iguodala unit. With five elite players who are capable of playing on the perimeter, most teams can't defend the look. But the Jazz managed by having Gobert guard Iguodala, and daring him to shoot. Iguodala obliged with two misses and some really awkward plays.

When the Warriors went with the Death Lineup, the Jazz countered by putting Gobert on Iggy. It did not go well: pic.twitter.com/q4ofYQYKfz — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 31, 2018

And on offense, the Jazz attacked as a team. Joe Ingles started the game out on fire, but then Rubio and Donovan Mitchell stepped their game up to lead the Jazz's perimeter attack. When the Warriors brought help to those guys, they found bigger teammates Derrick Favors and Gobert into the attack to finish.

Warriors put a lot of defensive attention on stopping Rubio, which he used to find his teammates (especially Favors) for easy baskets: pic.twitter.com/oPAgnBfn15 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 31, 2018

"They were tremendous tonight," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. "They were well prepared. They were aggressive."

2. The Warriors didn't bring their A-game

Connor Letourneau, the San Fransisco Chronicle's Warriors beat writer, said this after the Jazz scored 103 points in the game's first three quarters:

At the very least, it's not far off. The Jazz shot the highest percentage of any team in the Kerr era, and it's understandable with the open shots they were getting. Here's the Jazz's shot chart:

Why? Well, at times, the Warriors seemed to completely lack any semblance of communication. While the beginning of this play isn't shown, it's literally 14 seconds of nothing, as the Jazz didn't know what play they were running. Eventually, Rubio just called for the pick and roll.

For some reason, the Warriors used two guys to guard Rubio, trapping him. Rubio just waits patiently for the opportunity and passes the ball to Favors for a dunk:

Another example: pic.twitter.com/MajClFykTm — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 31, 2018

"That was a pathetic effort out there," Kerr said after the game. "That was disgusting basketball."

Trapping Rubio wasn't the only weird personnel decision. Consider how frequently the Warriors let Ingles — one of the league's best 3-point shooters — just waltz into threes in the first few minutes of the game:

They also just let Jingles waltz into open 3s? pic.twitter.com/yti2XAynEs — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 31, 2018

Ingles got three of these looks and made them, because Ingles' best skill is making wide-open NBA threes. You can't go under the screen here, but the Warriors did!

It was so weird. Usually, the Warriors are very good at executing a game plan, but on Tuesday it just felt like they were thoroughly confused all night long. I understand how lapses in focus can happen for a championship team, but this wasn't a lapse. This was a blackout.

3. Ricky Rubio renaissance

While Mitchell, Ingles, Favors, Gobert, Royce O'Neale, Alec Burks and others had good games, I thought the Jazz's best performance came from Ricky Rubio. He finished with 23 points and 11 assists. When he was on the court, the Jazz outscored the Warriors by 31 points in 35 minutes, before garbage time.

Rubio made his presence known in so many ways. He impressed Jazz head coach Quin Snyder with his shot selection and, in particular, his ability to get to the rim. Here, he just drives by Curry with a nice behind-the-back dribble:

But Rubio was balling getting to the rim, with moves like this: pic.twitter.com/v62Ibmh8Zj — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 31, 2018

We've seen Rubio frustratingly aggressive in Jazz games this season, but this is the good kind of aggression that gets layups for himself and others.

And his defense on Curry was superb. He never let one of the league's leading MVP candidates free for a second. Curry's 4-13 shooting night was a team effort, but Rubio did a nice job of steering Curry into tough positions.

Rubio's been figuring things out in this recent stretch, as the Jazz have won five of their last seven games — thanks in no small part to Rubio's more solid contributions.

"He’s got excellent instincts and he has learned to not let his instincts get him out of position. That’s going to happen sometimes. There have been times where he has asked ‘Should I go for that?’ I think it’s a mental focus on both ends," Snyder said."The same thing is true of him passing the ball. Just being a little more sure and picking spots to make a scoring pass and just being more conscious of where. He has only been with us for four months. It’s a process, and I just like how he is playing. I like how he is leading as much as anything."

After hitting a game-winning shot against the Raptors, Rubio came out and made sure the Jazz wouldn't need another tonight.

Related topics