SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 94-80 win over the Orlando Magic from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz win with another spectacular defensive performance

The Jazz are winning because of their defense, and a huge portion of the credit has to Rudy Gobert. Some stats for you:

• Since Gobert returned on Jan. 19, the Jazz have had the league's No. 1 rated defense at 98.7 points per 100 possessions. That's nearly three points better than any other team.
• In that time, when Gobert is in the game, the Jazz allow opponents only 97.0 points per 100 possessions, and they outscore opponents by 12.1 points per 100.
• Gobert leads the league in shots contested during that time with 17.6 shots per game. Opponents only shoot 46 percent on those shots, pretty good considering that they're nearly all coming from the basket.
• Since Gobert's return, the Jazz have had only three below-average defensive games: his first game back against the Knicks, the Jazz's horrible loss against the Atlanta Hawks and against San Antonio at home.
• The Jazz are 16-4 overall since Gobert came back.

Let's do a thought experiment for a second: can you imagine if Gobert was an offense-first player rather than a defense-first one? What he's doing now is essentially the offensive equivalent of scoring 30 points per game while leading his team to the best offense in the league, and, well, a 16-4 record. We might be talking about him like he's James Harden, or Kyrie Irving, or someone like that.

Instead, Gobert does equal damage on the defensive end. Those 17 shots per game that he defends are just as many as the 17 shots an offensive player puts up. Irving has averaged 17 shots per game in his career, and Harden with 18 in his Houston career. And the Jazz just blow teams out on that end, enough to make up for what has been a pretty sluggish offense as of late.

Monday night was no exception: the Jazz allowed just an 84.8 offensive rating by the Magic, forced them to shoot 34 percent overall and only allowed 32 points in the paint. Their best offensive player, Aaron Gordon, shot 4-18. Their second best offensive player, Evan Fournier (Gobert's friend, actually), also shot 4-18. It's just not a coincidence.

The slightly ironic thing about me going on this rant tonight is that Gobert was great on offense tonight, leading the Jazz with 21 points on 9-10 shooting. He added 17 rebounds. He even hit an intentionally-banked in jumper from the elbow, like he was Tim Duncan or something. But it was his defense that was truly special, and that's the quality that makes the Jazz unique.

2. Quin Snyder was ejected for the first time

Jazz head coach Quin Snyder has a well-earned reputation for being a frightening coach from a spectator point of view, maybe thanks to faces like this on the sideline.

But on Monday night, he was ejected for the first time ever in an NBA game after getting increasingly frustrated throughout the contest at the refereeing crew of Sean Wright, Bennie Adams, and Lauren Holtkamp.

I think my favorite part is at the 1:15 part of this video. After getting the first technical, Snyder retreats to his bench. He takes a look to the left, where the scoreboard is, sees there are 52 seconds left in a 12-point game, and figures it's safe to let the crew hear his feelings.

I haven't seen Quin Snyder this hot during a game since he screamed at the team to wake up a couple of years ago. #utahjazz#takenote#nbapic.twitter.com/EjR8seEumU — Jeremiah Jensen (@JJSportsBeat) March 6, 2018

At that point, he goes all the way out to the free-throw line, lets each and every ref know about what's happening on the court, and gets his money's worth on the way out.

I asked Snyder what happened during the ejection. "I thought that it was a poor call, and commented on the call," Snyder replied simply.

There were some weird calls and it culminated in zero free throw attempts in the first half, though the Jazz finished with 18 in the game, more than Orlando's 14.

But mostly, it was great to see the reaction of the players after Snyder's ejection. After Snyder was safely off the floor, both Donovan Mitchell and Joe Ingles pumped the crowd up, clearly excited that their coach had gone to bat for them. Given how frequently Snyder reminds them to run back on defense rather than complain to the officials, they finally got to air their complaints.

Snyder is so analytical that it's honestly a little bit exciting when he reveals how much he really cares about this team from an emotional perspective. That's true whether he's upset with my question, or upset at the officials.

3. Disappointing bench play offensively

The Jazz only got 12 points combined from their bench tonight: four points from Jae Crowder, three from Alec Burks, three from Raul Neto, two from Royce O'Neale, and zero from Ekpe Udoh.

Part of the problem was that Derrick Favors was out due to neck spasms, forcing Jonas Jerebko to start and Udoh to play backup center. But probably the biggest problem is that they lack offensive creative ability in that second unit.

You would hope Alec Burks would be that guy. As a young player, he's dynamic, could score on his own or at least make something happen. Heck, even this season, he scored 28, then 24, then 27 points in three consecutive Jazz wins. It was wild!

It feels like Burks is chasing that form now, with turnovers and overall bad ideas throughout. Plays like this, for example:

AB's charge turnover: pic.twitter.com/Xu1mHy4kxD — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 6, 2018

I appreciate Burks' willingness to be aggressive here, but yikes. Why is he just leading with his shoulder into Jonathan Isaac on a fast-break opportunity where he doesn't have any advantage?

Burks should just dump this ball off to Crowder, who then either might have a lane to the hoop or a kickout for an open three. But because Burks' pressing so much, he gets a turnover for his team.

Crowder also had a bad game, going 1-9 from the floor, though he did contribute on the defensive end. O'Neale did too, though it seems like he's hit a decision-making rough patch too.

I will give the bench credit, though, for this: despite playing so poorly offensively, they kept up the solid defense of the starters, minimizing the hurt the Jazz felt.

Getting Favors back will help, but the biggest key might be the return of Dante Exum. How quickly he can come back — and what level he plays at — will determine if the Jazz need to play their starting guards 40 minutes per game, as Mitchell played tonight. In the meantime, Snyder will probably keep one of Rubio, Mitchell and Ingles on the court at all times.

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