SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 88-86 loss to the San Antonio Spurs from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz fight back in the fourth quarter, but life is unfair

Finally, in the fourth quarter, the law of averages started to play out in the Jazz's favor. After going 0-11 in the first three quarters from the 3-point line, the Jazz made five in a row in the fourth quarter to change a 16-point deficit to a one-point lead.

And then, well, the quirkiness came back. There were a few missed calls against the Spurs that really made an impact on the outcome of the game (more on that later).

The Spurs' shotmaking became really ridiculous at the end too. Tony Parker's corner three with Rudy Gobert contesting seems like a nearly impossible shot, which Parker made.

More 🔥: https://t.co/ul2nyp9Fprpic.twitter.com/tK2dCeP7TV — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) April 6, 2016

"It's a great shot. I've watched him a lot, and I've never seen him hit a three off the dribble in a late moment like that. Tough shot," Rudy said in postgame.

And then Kawhi Leonard's go-ahead shot with 4.7 seconds left is also a contested mid-range shot. Leonard is a great player, to be sure, but that's not a bad outcome for the Jazz.

ICYMI: Kawhi is clutch.https://t.co/HbHFIeyQ9i — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) April 6, 2016

Finally, Rodney Hood had a chance to make the game-winning shot, which seemed like it had a good chance of going in. As Hood said, "When it left my hands, it felt good." Despite the good look, it went awry. "The shot I took, I'll live with it."

If it seems like you've heard this story before, it's because you have. The Jazz have a poor record in close games this season: they're 10-14 in games decided by five points or less. And the Jazz's point differential would predict a 44-34 team, not a 39-39 one. Separate studies by Dean Oliver and Daryl Morey show that a team's point differential is more predictive of their future win-loss record than their current win-loss record.

Now look, a lot of this is not luck: in the last week, it's been great execution by historically great teams. But again, the Jazz come away thinking about what might have been.

Quin Snyder talked about this after the game, when I brought up the suggestion that the Jazz could use a little more luck. "I don't want to be lucky, and I don't want to be snakebit. I want to be better."

2. Let's talk about refereeing

In my professional opinion, refereeing had a big outcome on tonight's game. The third quarter was called pretty tightly: 15 fouls combined on both teams led to 23 combined free throws in those 12 minutes. Then, the fourth quarter was called very loosely: only four fouls were called leading to three free-throws.

I don't think the game was being played any differently, it was just the standard to which Scott Foster, Scott Twardoski and Rodney Mott were applying the rules. Ideally, that would be more uniform across the entire game, but that wasn't the case tonight.

Let's look at one important call. With 2:09 left, Joe Ingles got called for a moving-screen offensive foul that led to a Kyle Anderson 3-point make on the other end:

Scott Twardoski can't get suckered this easily on this Tony Parker push/Joe Ingles offensive foul call: pic.twitter.com/rDgdKjh6UP — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 6, 2016

This is a terrible call for Scott Twardoski to make. It's kind of a double-whammy for the Jazz: not only is the initial push by Parker missed, the call goes the other way as an offensive foul. In a critical possession, the official made a critical mistake.

There's some talk that Tony Parker may have trapped the ball on his leg on the aforementioned three, which should have been called a double-dribble, but I couldn't find any video of it to prove my point. Regardless, some consistency would have been nice here.

By the way, I tallied the stats to see where the Jazz now rank in call margin in the last two minute reports:

Through today, the number of incorrect calls going for and against every NBA team since the L2M program began: pic.twitter.com/bfaxZQ97zb — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) April 1, 2016

The Jazz are now tied for the lowest call margin in the league, along with the Philadelphia 76ers. As I reported last month, the Jazz also have the league's worst call margin in the league's secret 48 minute reports that cover the whole game.

3. Jazz's bench still has a ways to go

In nearly all facets of the organization, the Jazz are trying to emulate the Spurs. From front office, to coaching staff, to playing personnel, the Jazz are trying to get either literal ex-Spurs or guys who could fit that sort of selfless system.

The Jazz are getting there. The defense is becoming close, and the Jazz have a system like the Spurs where they'll flow away from heavy defensive pressure to try to get shots for the whole team. On the Spurs, though, all of their players can make those shots that flow in their direction.

Check out how good all of the Spurs' lineups are. Their best and worst three-man lineup trios are still hugely positive:

The best and worst three-man lineups (minimum 300 minutes) for every Western Conference team... pic.twitter.com/ZXtcjWlEEF — Andy Bailey (@AndrewDBailey) February 12, 2016

On the Jazz, though, they don't quite have that kind of depth. The bench has been better, but tonight, it was a real worry for the Jazz: it's no coincidence that Trey Lyles had a team-low -13, and the Spurs' high was set by a +21 by Kyle Anderson.

At the press conference yesterday announcing the SLC Stars, Dennis Lindsey reflected a little bit on this playoff chase. I thought it was interesting that, unprompted, he said he may end the season by self-evaluating whether or not he put too much trust in his current bench as-is. The Jazz's bench has improved, but it isn't a strength.

Of course, a healthy team helps significantly, but it will be interesting to see how the Jazz use all of that cap space this offseason to improve their bench.

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