DENVER — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 100-84 win over the Denver Nuggets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz, and especially Rudy Gobert, turn up the defensive pressure

The Jazz's defense was a bit sloppy in the first half: they kept coming from one pass away to help on not very dangerous threats, like Jusuf Nurkic postups being defended by Rudy Gobert. That allowed the Nuggets to score 48 points in the first half on some easy looks from both inside and out.

The trend was continuing in the third quarter too: Denver scored 12 points in the first four and a half minutes. Gobert was subbed out only two minutes into the quarter, seemingly for some instruction from Quin Snyder: he went back to the scorers table to check in pretty quickly afterwards.

And then as soon as Gobert checked in for the second time, the Jazz's defense was unbreakable. The Nuggets scored two points for the rest of the quarter, and four points in the next 12 minutes combined.

I have no idea what Snyder said, but whatever it was, it was incredibly effective. Gobert had his fingerprints all over every single defensive possession, blocking shots, changing the ones he didn't block, and even scored some on the offensive end too. Denver was spooked, which led to some turnovers and fast break opportunities for the Jazz going the other way.

Gobert's stats are incredible. Sure, he picked up 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 blocks. His opposing matchup, Nurkic, went only 2-11, and that actually flatters him: he only made those two shots in garbage time. The Jazz's defensive rating with Gobert in the game was a ridiculous 78.8.

He's a special, special player.

2. Trey Lyles starts, surprisingly, plays well

Derrick Favors was announced as a starter tonight at the Pepsi Center, getting his name called alongside Hayward's, Hood's, Gobert's, and Mack's. But after that, realizing his knee wasn't at 100 percent, the Jazz chose to sit Favors and play Trey Lyles in his stead.

Gobert said he noticed Favors wasn't at his best in warmups, and told his frontcourt partner "If you're not feeling great, just don't play tonight. We need you 100% tomorrow, don't be 50 percent tonight and 50 percent tomorrow."

So long as Favors is at or near 100 percent tomorrow, not playing against Denver will have been the right decision.

Lyles made a tremendous impact, and was Utah's best player in the first half. His ability to shoot from outside made him an incredibly difficult matchup for Nikola Jokic, scoring 15 points on 6-6 shooting, including 3-3 from deep. Two consecutive threes rescued a seven-point deficit in the Jazz in the third quarter.

Yet, there's a reason that the Jazz's 24-0 run came without Lyles on the floor: Lyles isn't much of an interior or perimeter defender right now, and that showed tonight. The Nuggets had a 105.8 offensive rating with Lyles on the floor, and a 55 offensive rating with him off of it. Of course, a difference that big isn't all his fault, but being a defensive presence and making the right decisions on that end of the floor is his next step.

3. Committing to quick decisions on offense

Thanks to Lyles, above, the Jazz's offense didn't end up being too bad in the first half. But late in the first quarter and midway through the second, the Jazz's offense was really struggling: six points in eight minutes. We've seen this pretty frequently this season, where the Jazz's bench can't put points on the board.

One way Snyder's been able to prevent that recently is by mixing more of the starters and bench units together. Of course, that's difficult with Favors out, which might be why we saw the bad results tonight.

One other source of a problem: sometimes, the Jazz weren't making quick decisions on offense. They'd run an entire play to set up an advantage, but then the player on the receiving end of that chose not to take advantage. Here's an example.

Shelvin Mack record scratch: pic.twitter.com/pOMt9jK6KF — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 11, 2016

See how Mack receives the ball with about seven seconds left on the shot clock with acres of space? In that situation, Mack needs to either take the open three or take advantage of the moving defender, using his momentum against him to drive to the lane. Instead, Mack does nothing, and calls for a last second screen. By that time, it's too late.

NBA analyst Nate Duncan calls these "record scratches," when the offense is running well but gets stuck in the hands of one player. That was a definite record scratch from Mack.

In the second half, the Jazz did a much better job of taking advantage of these scoring opportunities. Snyder calls it "go-and-catch," taking advantage by being on the move even as you catch the ball.

Sure, sometimes the shot doesn't go down, but any shot is always better than a 24-second violation.

Related topics