WASHINGTON D.C. — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 107-104 win over the Washington Wizards from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz force Washington turnovers

With both Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert out for the Jazz due to injury, Ekpe Udoh had to step up and start as they faced a good Washington team.

But Udoh changed the Jazz's defense. His extra length and defensive ability, along with some important contributions from his teammates, forced 23 turnovers from Washington. Those 23 turnovers led to 27 points directly, plus meant that the Jazz took 14 more shots than the Wizards during the game.

Udoh led the Jazz in steals with four, and you can see how his length surprised Bradley Beal and John Wall. Here, he just pokes the ball away from Beal and gets the run-out layup on the other end.

The Jazz lost 3 out of the Four Factors today, but won the turnover battle 23-15. Ekpe Udoh was a big reason why. Here he just picks the pocket of Bradley Beal: pic.twitter.com/dDjcCloIMT — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

A few minutes later, Udoh comes up a little on pick and roll coverage, and Beal, maybe afraid of the trap, throws the pass to Marcin Gortat. But again, Udoh uses his length to deflect the pass and get the steal.

A few minutes later, Udoh comes up and fakes like he's going to pressure the ball, but actually sinks back down, forcing the turnover: pic.twitter.com/es7IJgyFjd — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

But Udoh wasn't alone. Ricky Rubio added three steals in typical Rubio fashion. The most surprising participant in the robbery was Joe Johnson. Johnson's been a turnstile on defense this season, but tonight he used his hands well to stop the Wizards on drives, get the ball, and start fast breaks.

Joe Johnson had 3 3rd quarter steals, too: Here, he just reaches in and grabs the ball from Oubre: pic.twitter.com/qpyntOXwrx — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

That ability to force the Wizards into mistakes was huge in a night when both Wall and Beal had great scoring games. Wall had 35 points, Beal added 23, but with 13 combined turnovers from the pair, the Jazz were able to catch up with their more balanced scoring attempts.

"We were really active. Just trying to compete, not just on every possession but in a lot of situations," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said.

That defensive activity made all of the difference for the Jazz. Despite shooting a lower percentage, being out-rebounded, and going to the line fewer times, the Jazz won the game by forcing Washington mistakes.

2. Taking open shots earlier in the shot clock

While the Jazz's turnover problems weren't as bad as Washington's, with only 13, they had a bunch of shots that may as well be turnovers: late shot-clock heaves that they don't really have any chance to rebound.

Take this one for example:

Donovan Mitchell makes a great pass to Joe Ingles in the corner, but Ingles doesn't take the open three. Instead, he drives and finds Udoh in the paint, but he feels too contested to take the shot. So Udoh ends up passing out to Donovan Mitchell for the half court shot.

One problem for the Jazz was getting in late-shot clock situations. Sometimes, it was despite turning down a better shot earlier in the possession. Here's Ingles passing up a corner 3 (good closeout, though), forcing Mitchell into a half-courter pic.twitter.com/73DXw8hCFD — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

Another one: Ingles receives the ball with eight seconds left on the shot clock at the top of the key with plenty of room to hit a three, but instead passes it to the double-teamed Royce O'Neale. It's a turnover.

Here's one where Ingles turns down a top-of-the-key 3 to try to find O'Neale, who is double-teamed pic.twitter.com/uA2rQOlJVi — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

Ingles wasn't the only problem here, I should point out: Rubio passed up some layups, Udoh had a couple of opportunities at the rim, and even Jonas Jerebko pump-faked this wide open attempt.

It's a little weird being THAT open 😂#UTAatWASpic.twitter.com/ukUNiJ3GzS — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) January 11, 2018

This is probably one consequence of having a team of guys who have never been big shot-takers in their NBA careers. I'm also quick to criticize Rodney Hood when he takes the hero-ball 3-point shot at the end of the game in Miami, for example. But with Hood, Favors, and Gobert out, the Jazz can't rely on Mitchell to take deep threes with one second left. It's on Ingles, Rubio and Jerebko to take those kinds of shots throughout the game that the offense creates for them.

3. Hood's ejection

Whoa, Rodney Hood got ejected! Hood was ejected for arguing two calls with tonight's refereeing crew, one at the very end of the first half and one in the middle of the third quarter. On the first play, he was undercut by his own teammate, Rubio, though Rubio certainly deserved a foul call:

Finally Hood got ejected tonight on two technicals. First one was a foul, but it was committed against Rubio: pic.twitter.com/KeU7ipY8vv — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

The second one was on a weaving Hood drive to the basket, where he was trying to take advantage of being guarded by Wall. To be honest, I don't know if Wall actually fouls him here either: Hood creates the contact and Wall stayed pretty vertical:

Second one was after a drive on Wall... maybe not the best angle but I don't see the defensive foul here pic.twitter.com/g1V1rkwWUa — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 11, 2018

Regardless, it was out of character to see Hood react like that: the technicals were Hood's first of the season. He only had one all of last season and two in the 2014-15 season for three career Ts.

Hood also may have enlarged his technical fine by slapping the phone of a fan who was filming him walk off the court:

Rodney Hood slapped the cell phone right out of that man's hands pic.twitter.com/ToR9pYeGqN — Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 11, 2018

The NBA has fined players this season for swearing at fans and certainly slapping something they own out of their hand will provoke a fine as well. But, on the positive side, that's an incredible gif to use when someone is doing something on the internet you're not a big fan of. Use it wisely. 

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