SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 102-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Warriors superstars take over in fourth quarter

The Jazz had a 79-78 lead with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter before giving up a Draymond Green layup, giving the Warriors a one-point advantage.

And then Steph Curry and Kevin Durant took over. The Warriors superstars, who own the NBA's last three MVP trophies, scored the game's last 22 points between them in the last six minutes of play.

22 points, 11 possessions, six minutes. That's what put the Jazz to the brink of elimination. If you're defending them, you're trying to force them into difficult pull-up shots. Durant and Curry hit every pull-up three (5-for-5 in the six minutes), hit some mid-range shots, and even made some incredibly difficult shots, like this one:

Durant bank shot: pic.twitter.com/hbpmJFhsFo — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) May 7, 2017

If you're the Jazz, what do you do? I think the Jazz could have scored more down the stretch. Rudy Gobert was right in the post-game press conference when he said the ball stuck a little bit, and they just missed some wide-open shots. But they were never going to score 22 points in 11 possessions, because that's a ridiculous standard.

"You look at two of the best players in the game and you say they made some unbelievable shots that were timely," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "That's why they are who they are... You could search for answers, and often the answer is right in front of the bench, and those are two great players."

Before the series, we knew that the Warriors were going to win a game thanks to their ridiculous shooting. That was Game 3, and if you're a Jazz fan, you just have to throw up your hands and congratulate your opponent.

2. Jazz did a lot of things well tonight

The frustrating thing about the Warriors' just doing their superstar thing to win the game at the end is that the Jazz had played good basketball before that. You know how sports broadcasts like to do the "Keys To The Game" before contests, saying what things each team will need to do to win? Let's imagine what the keys might have been before Game 3.

• Stop Warriors In Transition — With the most terrifying team in the league in the open court, the first and most important thing to is to limit their easy baskets early in the shot clock. The Jazz certainly did that tonight, allowing only seven Warriors fast break points. Relatedly, the Jazz also were smart with the ball. They only had nine turnovers which led to 12 Golden State points. Pretty good!
• Slow The Splash Bros. — With the most dangerous backcourt in the league, the key is to limit their open looks and keep them from setting your team ablaze. Well, the Jazz played some fantastic defense on Steph Curry and Klay Thompson tonight. The two combined for just 29 points on inefficient 7-29 shooting (24 percent!), six rebounds, and four assists. That's a huge win for the Jazz, and Joe Ingles, Rodney Hood, and even Shelvin Mack deserve a huge share of credit.
• Get Gordon Going — After a tough start to Game 2, the Jazz's star Gordon Hayward nearly brought the Jazz back in Game 2 with 21 points in the second half. The Jazz will need another good performance from him to try to match the Warriors' firepower. And... Hayward was great! He scored 29 points on 18 shots, adding six assists when the defense collapsed.

You can certainly point to some things that the Jazz could have done better. Maybe doing more on the offensive glass? Making some open looks that they missed? Had their starting point guard shoot more efficiently? But overall, the Warriors just raised their level, and showed why they're the best team in the NBA.

3. Jazz need to find a third scorer against longer defenders

Here's one big thing that the Jazz were missing tonight that they could have desperately used: a third scorer behind Hayward and Gobert. The Jazz got that in the Clippers series from Joe Johnson, but he was just 3-for-12 tonight from the field, for only seven points. He missed a critical 3-pointer with no one on his side of the floor that could have tied the game late, and he was understandably frustrated with himself after the game.

Rodney Hood also didn't get going tonight, scoring only three points on 1-for-8 shooting. He had a moment when he left the bench to get checked out by the Jazz's training staff in the tunnel in the fourth quarter, and he actually did a nice job of tracking Curry and Thompson all game long. But the scoring efficiency, it's fair to say, wasn't there.

Here's the two players' combined shot chart:

You can see how tough the transition has been for Hood and Johnson from the Clippers to the Warriors. Whereas the Clippers have very exploitable wing defenders (think Jamal Crawford, Ray Felton, J.J. Redick, Paul Pierce, etc.), the Warriors have none. Maybe one, in Ian Clark? But he played seven minutes.

I don't really know what to do about that. Just thinking out loud, maybe some speed on the roster would be a bigger challenge to them? But then you look at the playoff history of quick scoring guards like Lou Williams, and it's not brilliant.

Obviously, having George Hill, the Jazz's second-leading scorer this season, would answer a few of these questions. And maybe that comes from development from Rodney Hood, or a good draft pick this season. But it'd be nice to have more consistency from scoring.

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