SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 114-107 win over the Orlando Magic from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Hood's probably good

We lead off today's Triple Team with the scariest injury moment in a season full of them. Rodney Hood took off on a fast break with 1:44 left in the fourth quarter, and, well, knees aren't supposed to bend like this:

Rodney Hood helped off the floor after knee injury pic.twitter.com/wYqJh0tb4j — Aaron Bruski (@aaronbruski) January 15, 2017

That being said, after the game we got a number of encouraging pieces of news about the injury:

• "Hyperextended knee is what I was told," Quin Snyder said in his postgame presser. "They have to continue to evaluate, but hopefully it's not serious." He didn't want to say for sure they were out of the woods, but it's a good sign. The Jazz confirmed the diagnosis postgame, though say he'll be evaluated again tomorrow. Still, a hyperextension diagnosis this early does seem to rule out a total ACL tear.
• Alec Burks saw Hood walking immediately after the game.
• After the injury, Rodney Hood's family, attending the game, immediately went out to wait outside the locker room for news about the injury. I didn't see the initial meeting, but I did see the Jazz's assistant coaches talking and laughing with Hood's family as I walked out of the locker room after postgame media. That kind of laughter doesn't seem like it would be likely if the Jazz feared the worst.
• Though he wasn't made available to the media, Hood walked (with a limp) to his locker, and sat down in his locker room chair relatively normally. His knee was wrapped, but that looked like it was it.

Again, they'll give Hood an MRI tomorrow, and figure out exactly what happened. From there, we'll know more.

2. Elfrid Payton finds success against Jazz D

Elfrid Payton was so good tonight, he made Quin Snyder accidentally swear during his postgame press conference. Payton finished with a career high 28 points, and added nine rebounds and nine assists to come very, very close to a triple-double. It was the best game of his young career.

In particular, the Jazz couldn't prevent him from getting inside. What was really impressive was how much of his production he was getting against a really good defender in George Hill. Payton played 39 minutes and 21 seconds, and all but about six of those minutes against Hill.

Normally, the Jazz would be fine with Payton getting inside on his own, because one of Rudy Gobert or Derrick Favors would be there to stop him. But because both of Serge Ibaka and Nikola Vucevic can shoot, the Magic could just send both of those guys to the perimeter while Payton drove.

"He was terrific. No way around it, he dominated the game," Snyder said. "He's strong, so when you're able to get in front of him he's able to get you off balance and he's very, very good. I don't think we did a good job on him, obviously, but I'm sure our guys feel like they could play him better. He was really good."

The result was a 42-point Orlando first quarter against the best defense in the league. The good news is that the Jazz adjusted, and allowed 65 points for the remaining 3 quarters, a very good total. The overall defensive rating for the game was 105 points per 100 possessions, which is pretty much exactly average. After a horrendous first quarter, the Jazz will take that.

3. 3-point shooting comes around to get Jazz the win

I feel like tonight was the perfect illustration on how much whether or not 3-point shots are falling can change a game. Remember last night, where the Jazz got a runaway 33-point victory? They shot 16-31 from outside, which obviously is great.

Tonight, the Jazz started just 4-23 from the 3-point line until the 6-minute mark of the fourth quarter. As a result, instead of having a massive lead, they were tied at that point. But had they just shot the ball at the same percentage as last night, they would have had a 24-point lead. Now, yeah, that's not long-term sustainable, but a 4-23 stretch is going to be rare from this team. That's especially true when Hill, Hood, and Hayward combined for 14 of those attempts.

But then the Jazz finished the game by making those same shots, and using the pressure that those shots provided by getting to the line for three free throws at a time. Hill got to the line for three FTs to tie the game at the five minute mark, then Hayward did the same at the three minute mark. Then, with the Jazz's lead just 1, Hood rose and hit a tough three from the corner, then Ingles finished two open looks from downtown once Hood left the game. In the end, the Jazz's 3-point barrage scored 15 points in those final five minutes, while the Magic scored only 10 on their end of the floor.

By the way, credit to Hayward, Gobert, and Favors for their contributions when the Jazz's 3-point shooting wasn't really working. Hayward finished with 23 points on just 10 shots, plus seven assists and five rebounds. Gobert had 19 points and 19 rebounds, and that's now 27 consecutive game with 10 or more rebounds. According to David Locke, that's now the 5th-longest such streak in the last 20 years. And Favors started the Jazz's scoring early with some open shots from inside and outside, getting very easy looks thanks to his teammate Hill. Those contributions gave them the chance to finish the game quickly once the outside looks started falling.

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