PHOENIX — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 106-101 win against the Phoenix Suns from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz excellent in the clutch again

Last year, the Jazz were among the league's worst teams in the league, finishing third-worst in the NBA in clutch point differential. The only two teams that played worse down the stretch were the terrible Philadelphia 76ers and the Phoenix Suns, both far worse than the Jazz in record and in talent.

Good news: the Jazz have turned that around in a hurry this year. They're now 8th in the league, and we saw that tonight. The Jazz ended the game on a 7-0 run, turning a 99-101 deficit into a 106-101 final score.

So what's changed this year? The biggest difference is the defense: the Jazz allowed a super-high 121.3 points per 100 possessions in clutch situations last year, but have allowed just 99.3 points this year. Essentially, the Jazz are doing it just by forcing their opponents to miss: they're not getting drastically more turnovers or rebounding the ball better, for instance.

And a lot of that credit has to go to Rudy Gobert, who dominated the paint in the fourth quarter. His timing on this game-sealing block, even as Marquese Chriss bobbles the ball, is impeccable.

Gobert's big block secures it for @utahjazz! He finishes with 18p, 17r & 4b.#TakeNote: 106#WeArePhx: 101 Bledsoe: 31p, 9r, 9a. pic.twitter.com/xkH0N4a2WK — NBA (@NBA) January 17, 2017

Many will credit the Jazz's experienced offseason acquisitions for the improvement, and I think that's fair: we definitely experienced that tonight, what with Joe Johnson's go-ahead contested three and Boris Diaw's good play throughout, especially in the first half.

"Between he and Boris tonight, their poise, their professionalism, and their toughness kept our team together on the floor," Quin Snyder said. And I think that "on the floor" phrase is important: it's not so much about the leadership they're showing behind the scenes, but also that they're just better basketball players than those that might have found those minutes last season.

By the way, that's the second consecutive game that the Jazz have broken Lawler's Law, so named after Clippers broadcaster Ralph Lawler. It's a very simple rule: the first team to 100 wins. Lawler's Law has been accurate 93.76 percent of the time in NBA history, so it's very unusual that a team would be able to break it twice in a row.

2. Suns able to find success offensively

That being said, the Jazz can't be happy with giving the Suns an opportunity to score 101 points on them, even though they were coming off an 108-point performance against the San Antonio Spurs in their last game.

Time and time again, Eric Bledsoe found his way into the paint, finishing with 31 points, nine assists, and nine rebounds. That's the second consecutive game that the Jazz have given up a near-triple double to an opposing starting point guard, and it's not as if Bledsoe and Elfrid Payton are the class of the league at their position.

George Hill looks a little bit slower than we saw him at the beginning of the season, though with the toe and concussion injuries, you can understand why. In particular, he looked tired at the end of the third quarter, just lacking that extra bit of conditioning that he'd probably have if he'd played throughout the season.

I think the Jazz made real strides in solving those problems in the second half (just as they did in their last two games, against the Pistons and the Suns), but this time, the Suns' ballhandlers did a great job hitting the pull-up mid-range jumpers that the Jazz chose to give them instead. Here's maybe the most obvious example:

Devin Booker finds space after Alex Len flips the screen. pic.twitter.com/2Tz4RgIX26 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 17, 2017

First of all, this play is really made by Alex Len cleverly flipping the direction of the screen at the last minute. That means Ingles, who is trying to keep Devin Booker controlled on the side of the floor, ends up getting beat once Booker snakes to the middle.

From there, Booker reads the level of the big man, in this case, Rudy Gobert. Because the Suns had such success getting into the paint early in the game, Gobert's standing a few steps back, trying to control things down low to prevent the easy drives and associated kickouts. That means Booker has a lot of space to rise, fire, and hit.

Guards who can reliably hit from midrange and get to the rim are so difficult to defend. Booker's been using that to huge effect recently: he came in scoring 39 points in each of his last two games, and for him to only get 25 tonight might count as a win.

3. Can we get some bench defense?

The Jazz's biggest problem right now is that their bench is unable to reliably play defense. In particular, the Suns feasted on the combination of Dante Exum and Trey Lyles in the first quarter. Exum wasn't quick enough to stay with Bledsoe or Tyler Ulis, and Lyles was either consistently leaving to help in the paint too early (thus giving an easy pass for an open dunk) or too late (thus committing two fouls).

So Exum played just 8 minutes, and even got some of his time at the two guard, where Snyder hoped his length would be more effective against the dangerous, but slightly-slower-than-Bledsoe-or-Ulis speed of Devin Booker. And Lyles played just six minutes in the first half, and didn't play in the second half. Honestly, with how well Diaw was playing, and how poor Lyles looked in his minutes, it was deserved.

Alec Burks got a chance to defend to Booker, too, but just isn't really there from a movement, physicality, or smarts point of view yet. He picked up two fouls in three seconds early in the fourth trying to guard Booker, then missed a technical free throw, then missed a wild layup, then got pulled a minute later.

Raul Neto, on the other hand, played 11 minutes after Exum struggled, and played significantly better defense. The Jazz just allowed 92.4 points per 100 possessions while he was in the game, the best number on the team. Does that mean he'll get the primary PG minutes next game? Snyder is just looking for reliable defense from that spot, so whoever can consistently deliver it will get those minutes.

Ideally, there'd be strength in numbers, but someone has to step up for that to be the case.

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