NEW YORK CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 106-101 loss to the New York Knicks from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz don't get loose balls late, Knicks take advantage

The Jazz came into the fourth quarter with a 5-point lead, but ended up with a 5-point loss. Why? Repeatedly, the Jazz would play some great defense, poking the ball loose or forcing Knicks misses. And then, somehow, the Knicks would get the ball and then would score.

"A few loose balls, that was the difference," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said after the game. "We've got to come up with some of those 50-50 balls"

When that's the case, I like to try to figure out how much of it is luck and how much of it could have been prevented with smarter play or harder effort. So let's go through some of the examples and try to figure it out.

Tim Hardaway Jr. DAGGER. pic.twitter.com/5xcfpk7NOC — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 16, 2017

This was the biggest shot of the game. On this play, the Jazz were both unlucky and could have used a bit more effort. First of all, on the fantastic block by Derrick Favors, the ball ends up barely hitting the rim, resetting the shot clock. That's unlucky. And that Joe Ingles didn't get the loose ball upon diving is probably another unfortunate bit of luck.

But Rodney Hood probably had inside track on the rebound and let Knicks rookie Frank Ntilikina get to the ball first. Ntilikina is faster than Hood, sure, but Hood probably could have gotten that one. Then, on the ensuing loose ball, Doug McDermott dives for the ball, but Ricky Rubio doesn't. Would it have been wise to do so? It's hard to say, but the Knicks end up winning the 50-50 ball.

(Sometimes, the Jazz got beat for the rebound. O'Quinn beats Favors here pretty badly, though you can tell from the jersey movement that there's a foul) pic.twitter.com/nlLkgNqXDo — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 16, 2017

Here's one where Kyle O'Quinn just rips a rebound out of Favors' hands, leading to two points from the Knicks. Favors gets fouled, though (see the jersey movement?) so it's hard to blame him too much.

The loose balls that found their way into the Knicks hands tonight in the 4Q... for example, this one is in Ingles' hands except Udoh knocks it out right to Hardaway: pic.twitter.com/NQUhAeN4hZ — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 16, 2017

The ball was in Ingles' hands, until Ekpe Udoh went for it himself and knocked it to Hardaway. There's a couple more, but here's maybe the flukiest play of the game:

This one both Rubio and Burks dive for it, which means the ball bounces to Hardaway for a silly buzzer beating 3 pic.twitter.com/mNTDBYpSS2 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 16, 2017

The Jazz play excellent defense for 23 seconds, somehow don't end up with the loose ball, and Hardaway hits a crazy three as the buzzer expires. Rough.

Overall, I have to say that it's probably mostly luck and, of course, the Knicks' shotmaking after getting second chances, that got them the chance to win the game. It's hard to blame the Jazz too much for what happened. As David Halberstam would say, it's just the breaks of the game.

2. Rodney Hood has a good game

Rodney Hood had his best night of the season, scoring 30 points and adding three assists, three rebounds, and even two blocks (which matches his season total).

Rodney Hood // Highlights 🎥🎯#UTAatNYKpic.twitter.com/AlylZaNIOQ — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 16, 2017

Here's the question: Is Hood getting better or is he just making more of his shots? Obviously, making shots is a skill, but I think we were all pretty confident that Hood would be able to have a game like tonight's even when he shot 0-11 against Portland. It's the other side of the variance coin.

But since that 0 point game, Hood has scored 17, 12, 19, 19, 19, 16, and now 30 points. That's pretty consistent, actually! And when his shot wasn't falling against Philadelphia (4-14 FG) and Miami (5-19 FG), he found a way to get to the free throw line by taking eight and 10 free throws, respectively.

Tonight, 12 of the 20 shots Hood took were 3-pointers, and only three of the shots were at the rim. That's probably not a recipe for consistent scoring, though it's hard to blame Hood when it's working. In the third quarter, it did. In the fourth quarter, not as much.

Here's the next step for Rodney, though: to be able to contribute in other ways besides scoring. In that seven-game stretch above, he's only averaging 2.7 rebounds per game and 1.5 assists per game, 0.4 steals and blocks per contest. Hood is decent defensively, but not an impact player. I thought his blocks tonight were a good start, as well as the three assists.

3. There were some flashes of really nice offense for the Jazz

Certainly, in the second half, the offense bogged down, thanks to the Knicks switching some, not playing Enes Kanter, and the fact that the Jazz couldn't close out stops on the defensive end.

But it seemed like the Jazz found some things on offense in the first half that they can build on.

Take the first play of the game:

Rubio oop to Mitchell pic.twitter.com/FHDSi0CR8M — StreetHistory (@streethistory) November 16, 2017

According to Craig Bolerjack (who, as a team employee, gets to watch the team's shootarounds), that was a play that the Jazz worked specifically on in shootaround today, knowing it could get them two points.

Here was my favorite play, though. After Donovan Mitchell hit a difficult pull-up 3 with 1:47 left in the second quarter, it looked like he was going to look to score himself again to take advantage of "the hot hand." But instead, Mitchell drove to the rim, made a super tough pass to Jonas Jerebko which led to a sequence of passing that found the ball in Mitchell's hands in the corner.

Finally, here's the sequence at the end of the first half as it played out on AT&T SportsNet, with Mitchell hitting a look-you-in-the-eyes pull-up 3, then passing on the drive on the next play pic.twitter.com/MTxxXRVXof — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 16, 2017

That's such great unselfishness. It's the kind of play that the Jazz should put at the top of their pitches to free agents next summer: sure, our offense isn't great, but look how it can operate. If you pass the ball here, it's going to end up back in your hands again. Beautiful work that wasn't enough. 

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