PORTLAND — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 115-96 win over the Portland Trail Blazers from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Huge third-quarter run sparked by Gobert and Ingles gets Jazz ninth consecutive win

After a defensive struggle of a first half, the Jazz exploded with a 22-5 run to start the third quarter behind the defensive efforts of Rudy Gobert and an offensively-aggressive Joe Ingles.

Let's start with Gobert, who was, in my mind, the player of the game tonight despite only scoring 12 points, the fifth-highest total among Jazz players tonight. But Gobert made his impact by absolutely locking off the paint for Portland, especially during the first three quarters of the contest.

How can you tell? Well, one stat is obvious: Portland only had six points in the paint through the first 33 minutes of tonight's game. To give you an idea of how impressive that is, the lowest total for any team in any NBA game this season is 16 points, by Oklahoma City.

Here, for example, Gobert makes C.J. McCollum turn a layup attempt into a contested fadeaway jump shot attempt. He just scares opponents to an incredible degree.

Rudy Gobert is a scary human being: pic.twitter.com/7jLMfeWh5u — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 12, 2018

He wasn't the only good defender during this period, though. Royce O'Neale, Derrick Favors, and Donovan Mitchell all deserve credit.

But I loved what Ingles contributed on both ends. He, too, was a defensive threat, getting steals like this that contributed to the Jazz's run.

Joe Ingles was great offensively in the 3rd Q but he also helped defensively with plays like this: pic.twitter.com/aCFYKhjU02 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 12, 2018

But his best attribute was his offense. He got to the free-throw line, using that pass-fake layup that has become his biggest interior weapon, then hit two straight threes, one off of a great assist from O'Neale and one a pull-up jumper in transition.

Perfect. Pass. 👊 Joe's 4/5 from behind the arc. pic.twitter.com/qyxYmAN3UV — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) February 12, 2018

Ingles scored 24 points Sunday night, a new career high just two days after scoring what was a career-high 23 on Friday. Ingles is now shooting 45.3 percent from downtown, fourth in the NBA and even an improvement over last season's campaign. His development, [detailed Friday](https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46257868&nid=304&title=the-triple-team-jazz-win-eight-straight-with-ingles-career-high), has raised the level of this team in a huge way.

2. Jae Crowder impresses in his debut

The big question coming in to Jae Crowder's first game with the Utah Jazz was what version of Crowder would we see. Would it be the Boston version of Crowder, that saw him become one of the league's best role players, or was it the drifting, unimpactful version of Crowder we saw in Cleveland this season?

Well, as much as you can learn about the rest of the season from one game, it looks like the Jazz will be getting the good version of Crowder. He fit in incredibly well right away, scoring 15 points, and adding five rebounds and three assists in playing 28 minutes in his debut.

Crowder signaled that things would be different with his very first points in a Jazz uniform, with this pull-up jumper off a screen in the first quarter.

This is the first time Jae Crowder came off a screen to his left and hit a midrange shot all season. The Jazz are asking him to do much more than the Cavs did. pic.twitter.com/EYiPN6K7Ej — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 12, 2018

Do you know how many times Jae Crowder had come off a screen to his left and made a midrange jump shot this season, in 52 games with Cleveland? Zero times. He did it in the first quarter of his first game with the Jazz.

He attacked off spot-up opportunities some, and made three of the seven threes he did take. And on defense, he was a presence, rotating to some good spots when his teammates needed the help. For just his first game, he fit in extremely well.

And after the game, Crowder couldn't help but rave about his new situation.

"Unbelievable. Playing with them on the court is very, very, very fun. I got back to having fun playing basketball with a great group of guys. It couldn't have gone better," Crowder said.

In particular, he liked his new system. "We're playing off one another. Coach (Jazz head coach Quin Snyder) gives a lot of freedom to these guys, some structure but a lot of freedom. I love it, I love playing with them, I love playing within the system."

His coach agreed.

"We saw a guy that's part of the team that threw himself into the group," Snyder said. "When you're a smart player that has feel, it's easy to blend into a group of guys that play unselfishly."

3. Donovan Mitchell responding to the trap

The Jazz couldn't have set up a better training situation for their rookie, Mitchell, at the end of the fourth quarter. With a twenty point lead with five minutes left, the Blazers started to trap the Jazz on the perimeter, trying to get quick turnovers so they could catch up on the other end.

And at first, the Blazers' strategy worked. They got a turnover from O'Neale, and almost got another one from Mitchell, though he was able to save the ball.

So the Jazz simplified things, trying to get the ball in Mitchell's hands at the top of the key. Mitchell, knowing what was coming and with the experience of the first failure, this time used his quickness to first get around his defenders, then get to the rim.

Donovan Mitchell struggled with the trap at first, but he showed the ability to dribble around it pic.twitter.com/Cd2wx5DKOU — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 12, 2018

Next play, the Blazers sent the double team again. But this time, Mitchell just passed around it, finding Crowder 10 feet away. Crowder swung it to Ingles, who nailed the open corner three.

And then he simply passed around it. pic.twitter.com/woFdAIXyBA — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) February 12, 2018

This is such good experience for Mitchell, who has struggled somewhat when seeing that much defensive pressure. At the end of the game, Mitchell learned about what he was facing, learned how to attack it, and sealed the Jazz's win. The Jazz's coaches have complimented Mitchell (who, by the way, scored 27 points) on his ability to learn very quickly, and this is just another example. 

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