SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 100-87 Game 4 loss to the Houston Rockets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. The Rockets are just really good

The Jazz's defense has done a lot of the things they needed to do to be competitive in this series against the Rockets:

• The Rockets took over half of their shots from the 3-point line during the regular season. The Jazz have been able to reduce that to about 40 percent.
• Instead, the Rockets are taking midrange shots, jumpers and floaters. After taking 28 of those on Friday, they took 30 of them on Sunday.
• The Rockets, by the way, were limited to only 19 shots of the rim, of which they only made 11. That's another win for Utah.
• They're limiting James Harden's efficiency. Harden hasn't shot above 50 percent in the series. In Game 4, he was 8-22. While he generated double-digit assists in the last two games, Harden only ended up with three on Sunday, next to eight turnovers.
• In every game but one, the Jazz have limited Eric Gordon, possibly the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year. He only scored nine points tonight on 3-10 shooting.
• The Jazz have made the all-small lineups unusable for Mike D'Antoni. The Rockets had either Clint Capela or Nene on the floor at all times on Sunday.

No layup attempts. Nor did Paul ever get to the free throw line on a layup attempt. He just scored 27 points on midrange jumpers and one 3-point shot.

This is one reason why having Paul and Harden is such a weapon: there's no one style of defense you can use to stop both. The drop-big defense can work against Harden, I think that's been shown a little bit in this series. But when you do that, Paul is just itching to take the ball, go around the screen and take the midrange jumper. For anyone else, it's a bad shot. For Paul, it's a 55 percent shot. It's not quite a layup for him, as he said after Game 3 and insisted after Game 4, but it's pretty close.

"He's going to shoot it 20, 40 times, as many as he has to," Harden said. "He was extremely aggressive tonight, which we need from him."

2. Finishing at the rim

There was one stat that Jazz head coach Quin Snyder wanted to point out after the game: the Jazz missed 22 shots at the rim.

Indeed, the Jazz shot 23/45 at the rim on Sunday. The Jazz usually shoot about 64 percent from there, which would have meant about 29 makes, normally. That's a 12-point difference that would have definitely changed things down the stretch.

So why did they miss so many? The biggest reason was Capela, who blocked six shots and altered many more. Clearly, the Jazz are thinking about him while finishing, and it means different shots.

Even from the first play of the game, Donovan Mitchell has to lob this ball high off the backboard in order to get it over the rotating Capela. That means that the layup goes a little bit long, missing.

The Rockets also do a great job at stunting and swiping at the ball. That means players have to pick up their dribble earlier, leading to harder layups from further away. See how Harden jumps in front of Jae Crowder here, forcing Crowder to take only one dribble before jumping back out to the passing lane?

And finally, they just good-old-fashioned missed a few "bunnies." Maybe Mitchell, Royce O'Neale, Crowder and others felt sped up due to Capela, or excitement, or whatever. That happens.

"We had our chances and we didn't convert," Snyder said. "Some of them were contested, some of them were open, but you are not going to get a better shot. That's tough to overcome."

3. Challenging Rudy Gobert to be better

The Jazz were outscored by 27 points when Rudy Gobert was on the court tonight. The next lowest plus-minus on the Jazz was -11 (O'Neale).

I think it's probable that's a little bit unfair to Gobert, that it puts the blame entirely on his shoulders. And it's certainly not typical: Gobert's made a name for himself by impacting the opposition's offense more than any other player. He will likely win the Defensive Player of the Year award, and it will be deserved.

That said, Gobert needs to be stronger and tougher than this in order to achieve his goals of winning a title. I thought this was a telling play:

Yes, Paul grabs Gobert's arm and pulls him back. That should be a foul. But honestly, that's a call that's going to be missed pretty frequently. Paul has a hold of his arm for a few seconds, giving Gobert plenty of opportunity for him to rip that arm away and keep it high where Paul can't get it. Gobert also just needs to get in a much better place for Neto to deliver the ball. Regardless of the arm situation, if Gobert's legs are between Raul Neto and the basket, it's a much easier pass for Gobert to catch, keep high, and turn and finish. As is, you're asking Neto to make a tough pass, which he didn't complete.

Another thing Gobert could do more effectively: take advantage of Capela helping. With how much Capela was rotating onto Jazz guards, Gobert should have been able to eat at the rim on putbacks and offensive rebounds. Gobert ended up with four, certainly a good number. I thought he could have gotten more. Watch the Mitchell missed layup from point No. 2 again. See how Harden just pushes Gobert out of the rebound? If Gobert challenges Harden with a real box out, that doesn't happen, and Gobert gets a putback.

Finally, he just needs to be a little bit stronger going up. I like a lot of what Gobert does here: he corrals the ball, goes right into Capela, and gets some movement. But at the final moment, he chooses to go up with a little finger roll. Capela tells him figuratively to get that weak stuff out of there.

Gobert can be an asset offensively, but against the switching defense, he hasn't been able to take advantage of his mismatches, either before or after the shots go up. On Sunday, the Jazz only scored 67 points per 100 possessions with Gobert on the court.

I asked Gobert about this after the game, and was a little bit disappointed at his response. "I'm just playing the game," he said. "Sometimes you're -27, sometimes you're +27. I just try to keep playing and try to help my team win the game."

Certainly, his defense has altered Houston's approach on the offensive end. But when the Jazz have the ball, I think they can get more from Gobert. He doesn't need a post move, doesn't need a jump shot. But Gobert can get stronger in other aspects of the offensive game to help his team win.

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