SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 107-97 win over the Memphis Grizzlies from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Dante Exum's career night

Okay, it wasn't the highest scoring total of Dante Exum's career, that award goes to a March performance last season when the Jazz were down big to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

But I thought it was Dante Exum's most complete performance of his NBA career: 21 points on 8-10 shooting, going 3-4 from the 3-point line, and adding three assists and three rebounds. Exum had a larger opportunity after Ricky Rubio sat out of the game due to hamstring soreness.

The 22-year-old Australian gave the Jazz a rim attacker from the guard spots, something they've consistently lacked with Donovan Mitchell off the floor. I liked the variety of ways Exum found himself at the hoop. Sometimes he just surprised the defense with his speed and first step while attacking screens:

Triple Team videos: Dante Exum's at his best when he's surprising defenses with his speed. pic.twitter.com/QGN8Ma5PBG — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 31, 2018

But he also showed some smarts. In semi-transition, he got good position on Marquis Teague. At first, I was confused: is Exum really going to try to post someone up? That's not something he practices. But he called for a Favors screen, and used the small window to attack the middle and score:

But I loved what he did with this play, getting the advantage early then calling for a Favors screen: pic.twitter.com/MH83aEks2Q — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 31, 2018

His finishes are still weird: they almost look like they slip out of his hands early, but it's what he's good at. But they were effective tonight, albeit against some shoddy defenders.

He also used that driving ability to set up teammates. I'm not 100 percent sure this is always a smart pass, but it definitely was the right pass with Teague on the ground.

And then had some good setups once he got an advantage pic.twitter.com/Ztxvn5Evuo — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 31, 2018

Finally, the biggest thing that his coaches and teammates were excited about was the defensive impact. Jazz head coach Quin Snyder, Rudy Gobert, Joe Ingles, and even Royce O'Neale all separately commented about how Exum played great on both ends.

That last part's really the key: how consistently Exum can make an impact on the defensive end. If it's solid, like Friday night's game, he could find his way into earning more minutes even when everyone is healthy.

2. The tanking tale of Marc Gasol

Marc Gasol was fantastic in 23 minutes played for the Grizzlies. He scored 28 points on 11-12 shooting, including 6-7 from the 3-point line. Nearly all of those shots were from the outside:

Honestly, he was taking advantage of Gobert's desire to maintain his dominion over the paint. Yes, Gobert is the league's best paint protector. But his understandable urge to defend the rim means that he doesn't stick with his man, and if it's a capable 3-point shooter, the Jazz can get into some trouble. 10-11 on jump shots is still obviously an outlier performance, but every once in a while, it might happen against the most skilled bigs in the league.

Enter Derrick Favors. Snyder put Favors in the game seemingly with the instruction to stay within an arm's length of Gasol at all times. That can be a dangerous defensive strategy (after all, there's no one big to guard the rim), but against Memphis' guards, it wasn't costly.

That strategy only ended up needing to work for two minutes though, as Gasol was subbed out with 4:01 left in the third quarter in a tie game and never returned.

This is the single most odious example of tanking I've ever witnessed. Gasol was carrying the Grizzlies, even outscoring the Jazz in a tie game, and Memphis head coach J.B. Bickerstaff couldn't be bothered to put him back in, lest he starts making shots again. After all, a Grizzlies win might break a tie with Atlanta in the tank race.

Bickerstaff seemed annoyed when asked about Gasol's sudden disappearance postgame:

JB Bickerstaff addresses "where'd Marc go?" question: "We'd like our young guys to get better" pic.twitter.com/G7Yw9Vt79i — Fastbreak Breakfast (@fastbreakbreak) March 31, 2018

"We gave our guys an opportunity to play," Bickerstaff said. "Deyonta Davis and Ivan Rabb have worked their tails off, so we gave them an opportunity to play."

This isn't really Bickerstaff's fault, just an interim coach listening to the instructions of his bosses. They're going to hire a new head coach at the end of the season, though, so there's not a ton of upside in it for him, though.

I'm not as anti-tanking as some: I think it's a legitimate strategy for front offices to go as young as possible and try to develop players. It's worked pretty well for the Philadelphia 76ers, and the San Antonio Spurs notably tanked to get Tim Duncan. Either way, there are going to be bad teams.

But for the sake of the product, I am against this level of anti-competition. If they didn't want Gasol to play, the Grizzlies should have traded him. Or at the very least, they should have sat him completely, and avoided the embarrassment of him standing in the tunnel, not even sitting on the bench, as the fourth quarter unsurprisingly slipped away from his team.

3. The difference between lightly contesting and actually contesting

Once again, the Jazz got the shot distribution that you're looking for: the Grizzlies shot 31 shots from mid-range and 17 from the rim, according to Cleaning The Glass. They also didn't get that many 3-point attempts; 23 is a good number to allow in the modern NBA.

But as has been a trend, the Grizzlies hit more jump shots than you'd expect, and I think I'm starting to figure out why: they're actually contesting a lot of these looks, but only lightly so.

Take this possession in the 2nd quarter. The Jazz play 20 seconds of really good defense, but in the end, the Grizzlies move the ball to Ben McLemore. Because Alec Burks is still rotating and not really ready to defend, he's a little bit off balance, giving McLemore enough space to get the shot off.

Finally, the Jazz's defense has slipped some, though teams' opposing shot profile hasn't really. I think one reason might be that the Jazz are maybe too lightly contesting the bad shots they force: pic.twitter.com/3Ul69czkFB — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 31, 2018

This isn't a good shot: if a team beats you consistently for 48 minutes with this kind of pull-up jumper, you'll tip your cap. But the best defense doesn't even allow a shot to get up, or forces a double clutch or something like that. McLemore probably makes looks like that at like a 35 percent rate, when maybe some more solid, tighter defense would have forced a 10 percent prayer.

Earlier in the shot clock, it's important to give yourself some space: after all, McLemore beating you to the rim isn't what you want either. But late in the shot clock? Let's force those 24-second violations.

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