SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 112-103 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Offensive guard play from surprising sources carries Jazz to win

We know the Jazz have a stellar defense, and it was true once again tonight. The Jazz allowed the Blazers to score just 92 points per 100 possessions, which gave themselves a chance to win late, both in regulation and in overtime.

But with three minutes left in the fourth quarter, it didn't look good for the Jazz. They were down six and didn't have the ball. But that's when Thabo Sefolosha stole the ball and passed it to Ricky Rubio, who hit a not-at-all open transition pull-up three that he's never hit in his life at the NBA level.

Ricky Rubio pull-up 3! pic.twitter.com/YapNQJHOXM — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 2, 2017

Then, after three more consecutive stops by the Jazz defense, they were still down three points. This time in transition, Rubio found Joe Ingles, who had an open 3-point look but passed it over to Sefolosha, who made the three tying the game.

But Rubio wasn't done! In overtime, he scored 11 of the Jazz's 16 points: an open pull-up jumper from 16 feet, a 3-pointer late, and then six free throws. All in all, he scored 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime. Ricky Rubio! 21 points in the game's most important moments! Remember, there were real worries about Rubio's clutch performance coming out of Minnesota, but he's been great so far.

He had help, though. Donovan Mitchell scored the other five points of the Jazz's overtime period, and finished with 28 points. With Rodney Hood really playing himself out of the game with missed shots (0 points, 0-11), the Jazz needed Mitchell to step up, and he did.

Mitchell is playing the exact opposite as Dante Exum, the Jazz's last lottery guard prospect, did as a rookie. Whereas Exum played very controlled, hesitant, and afraid to make mistakes, Mitchell is being incredibly aggressive, for both good and bad. Exum was a scared puppy, and Mitchell is a hyper puppy.

The good comes out in the scoring, though, and nights like tonight. He was burned by Damian Lillard twice in the fourth quarter by going under screens, so Jazz head coach Quin Snyder had to switch him on to Evan Turner, which worked much better.

But still, think about how surprising that the Jazz got 58 combined points from Rubio (career average before this year: 10.3 points per game) and Mitchell (a rookie who averaged 15 points per game last year in college). While it's probably not a combination the Jazz can count on any night, having any nights like this would have been unexpected.

2. Jazz role players step up

Another twosome to focus on: the bench duo of Jonas Jerebko and Sefolosha. Both came off the bench and played big roles in the Jazz win.

First, let's talk about Jerebko. After not playing except for in garbage time this season, Jerebko played 20 minutes tonight due to the injury to Joe Johnson. And he was good! He hit two threes, got himself to the line, getting eight points. My favorite part, though, was how he rebounded. He picked up seven in 20 minutes, despite mostly playing stretch four.

The Jazz outscored the Blazers by 17 points in those 20 minutes Jerebko was on the floor. He's going to play a big role for at least the next two weeks, as long as Johnson is out. That's all Jerebko needs to do: play solid defense, shoot the 3-point shot and make them at about his career averages, make the right play and rebound well. Okay, perhaps easier said than done.

Sefolosha was better, though. When Lillard went off a little bit in the fourth quarter (he ended up with 33 points, though on 27 shots), Snyder put Sefolosha on him. Lillard still was good after that, scoring 12 points in the next 11 minutes, but he turned the ball over twice and shot 4-9 from the field.

But the Jazz are asking Sefolosha to do a lot on offense, and he's rewarding that trust. He scored 15, a season high tonight, including the aforementioned three that tied the game. In his 28 minutes, the Jazz outscored Portland by 24 points. And, just like Jerebko, his rebounding played a big part. Sefolosha picked up nine.

Those are two nice pick-ups from Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey. Again, just like Rubio and Mitchell, they're not always going to have nights like this. But Snyder's system seems to have done something for them, too, giving more freedom to play with than they've had in the past.

3. Rodney Hood's bad shooting night

Rodney Hood had zero points tonight in 20 minutes on the floor, shooting 0-11 overall. He added two assists, two rebounds, and two steals, though.

I think I'm going to be less critical of Hood than most. On one hand: I legitimately appreciate Hood's confidence shooting the ball. We hear so frequently that Hood needs to keep shooting through slumps, and he has games (like he did in Minnesota) where he starts the game cold and ends it hot.

On the other hand, I'm less of a fan of the shots he took. Hood is at his best when he's getting 3-point shots, but tonight, he only took one three and ten twos. Those long twos aren't the best shots in the whole world, though.

I think the biggest thing it shows, though, is that Hood is probably best referred to as a shooter, not necessarily a scorer. When scorers struggle from the field, they find ways to get themselves points at the free-throw line, or by cutting to the basket, or lots of other ways.

Hood has never been that guy: he averages 2.1 free-throw attempts per game, and he's all the way up to 2.2 this season.

It's not that Hood's a bad player. It's very valuable to have an outside shooter like that on your team, especially one capable of rising up above the defense to get a shot. It's just probably time to realize that Hood's most likely outcome is as a shooter in the J.R. Smith mold, not a scorer in the Gordon Hayward mold.

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