SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 103-96 OT loss to the Golden State Warriors from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz come so close, again, to defeating the 68-7 Warriors

The Warriors are such a good team that when you take them to overtime but lose anyway, it makes sense to start with what went right over what went wrong. That's the sort of privilege that going 68-7 earns you as a team.

So what went right for the Jazz?

First, the Jazz did a great job of setting the pace to be the one they wanted. The Jazz have done better than any other team in the league at forcing the Warriors to play at their pace. Tonight, they played at about 95 possessions per 48 minutes. That's actually their highest pace against the Jazz in a game this season, the previous ones were all under 94 possessions per 48 minutes. That the Jazz are able to keep the Warriors largely in a half-court sort of game against them is impressive, and should serve them well if they meet in the playoffs.

Secondly, the team defended the restricted area extremely well. The Warriors average 18 makes per game on 28 attempts within the restricted area, but the Warriors made just 13 of 24 tonight (and just 10 for 21 in regulation). They were able to do this without playing both Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert together: due to Favors' injury, the pair played just 12 minutes together tonight. For the most part, it was Rudy Gobert locking down the paint, even though the Warriors tried to bring him out to the perimeter by playing without a center.

I thought the Jazz played pretty well offensively for the majority of the game. Sure, the Jazz ended up with only 96 points in an overtime game, but in a world in which the team makes more than 44.8 percent on free throws, or makes more than 36.6 percent of their uncontested shots, the offense starts to look very different.

It looks pretty likely that the Jazz will play the Warriors in the playoffs. After tonight's results, the Jazz still have an 89 percent chance of making the playoffs according to FiveThirtyEight.com's models. If that happens, the Jazz's success in the two games in Salt Lake City (even without picking up a win in either one!) has to give the Jazz hope that they can steal a game against what looks to be the team that will put up the best record in NBA history.

2. But critical shortcomings bring Jazz down

So yes, despite all of the above, the Jazz didn't win. Here's what went wrong.

The biggest box score item was free throws. The Jazz made just 13 of their 29 free throws tonight for just 44.8 percent. If they make just one more, they win the game in regulation. After the game, Quin Snyder pointed out that the team's been pretty good at the line recently, so it hadn't been a trend he was worried about.

A lot of the free throw misses were missed short, too. I wonder if the stress that Golden State put the Jazz through on both ends of the floor led to the Jazz being tired when it came to the shots on the line.

Still, despite that, the Jazz led by three with 24 seconds left, Warriors ball. Klay Thompson set a screen for Steph Curry, and both Jazz defenders went towards Curry. That led Thompson to have a wide open (albeit deep) three, which he missed. But the Warriors got the offensive rebound, and this time, Thompson sank an almost identical look. Tie game. That's such a hard play to defend, but the Jazz didn't see it coming. Furthermore, Ingles probably should have hustled back to the half-court after closing out on the initial three.

That play meant the Jazz still had a chance to win the game with 15 seconds left. In this situation, they ran a similar slip screen concept as they did to success against the Houston Rockets. The idea was to force Curry to guard Hayward, who would have the opportunity to win the game against a smaller defender.

Draymond Green blocks Shelvin Mack to force overtime. pic.twitter.com/07SV49rZX6 — Jeremy Woo (@Jeremy_Woo) March 31, 2016

But as soon as Mack came up to set the screen, the Warriors switched so that it was Draymond Green that guarded Mack, not Curry. Then, the Warriors didn't switch like the Jazz expected them to. That meant Hayward wasn't in a good situation, so he swung the ball over to Mack, who couldn't do anything against the bigger (and perhaps the league's best defensive player) Green.

That's clever defense by the Warriors. Mack should have probably focused on passing the ball to Trey Lyles, the beneficiary of the switch, but there wasn't a ton of time to do that either. Oh well.

3. Derrick Favors' injury

Favors went out of tonight's game in the 6:38 mark of the third quarter due to this foul from Andrew Bogut on a drive to the rim.

Video of Derrick Favors' injury. Favors lands awkwardly backward on right knee, did not return. pic.twitter.com/82vvjIlxnu — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) March 31, 2016

Like the rest of the team, Favors was really down after the game, and really felt that the opportunity to get a key win had slipped away. Clearly, he knew that this was an opportunity to prove himself and the team on a national stage, and the team didn't get it done.

I was initially concerned about how Favors suffered the injury: after all, he fell backwards on one knee, putting a tremendous amount of strain on his ligaments. That sort of motion isn't usually a good sign.

But after the game, two things brightened my thoughts on Favors. First, he said that the reason he didn't continue playing after the injury was that he felt that the team was better off without him at decreased capability. If it was a ligament tear, Favors playing wouldn't have been up to him.

Secondly, while he had a sleeve over his knee, he wasn't really icing, elevating, or bracing the injury. That he was available to the media at all is a good sign as well. Again, it feels like more attention would have been paid to his status had Jazz doctors feared a long-term injury.

Still, the injury absolutely played a role in the game. The Jazz were tremendous with Favors tonight, and he has a unique ability to guard on the perimeter and inside. That versatility is perhaps at its most useful against the Warriors.

Related topics