BROOKLYN — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 118-107 loss to the Brooklyn Nets from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz's defense can't slow Brooklyn down

The Jazz allowed the Brooklyn Nets, a team with the 22nd-ranked offense in the league, to score 121 points per 100 possessions.

Yes, as usual, the Jazz were injured. Ricky Rubio was out for the game with soreness in his right Achilles area, and Thabo Sefolosha didn't play because of soreness in his knee. Along with Rudy Gobert, plus the losses of Dante Exum and Joe Johnson, well, the Jazz were wildly shorthanded.

But those Jazz players that did play should be capable of better defense than that. There were a lot of ways that the Jazz broke down defensively, here are a couple of examples.

First of all, the Jazz's transition defense wasn't as typically stellar as it usually is. They allowed 13 fast break points, nearly double of the 7.3 fast-break points average they allow teams to score. And 22 points off of 16 turnovers isn't crazy, but it is still a lot for Utah. Here, everyone's back, and somehow they still get an open dunk.

Everybody was back here in transition defense... until they weren't pic.twitter.com/ToHdQJnsnc — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 18, 2017

Second, the Jazz still seem to struggle with collapsing too much inside. Even after the Nets hit numerous threes in the first quarter, including Spencer Dinwiddie, the Jazz were still defending like this:

Here's a Nets open three as it seems like the whole Jazz team left their perimeter man pic.twitter.com/xgLUf9p71a — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 18, 2017

And finally, the Jazz just didn't do a good enough job of preventing penetration in the first place. Some of that was because the Jazz were at a quickness disadvantage at basically every single position in the starting lineup, save for maybe point guard. To deal with it, the Jazz started to switch screens, to keep in front a little bit, but then the Nets just attacked the slower defender.

Today's Triple Team videos: The Jazz like to switch some things, but sometimes, I think they do it too soon. pic.twitter.com/oHd8YBznYp — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 18, 2017

"There's a little bit of realism involved in this for us," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder said after the game. "Those are times when you need even more from other people. Our team has to realize that our margin for error is smaller. Tonight, we had some breakdowns defensively, but it's not like we were awful."

2. Raul Neto's good game

Raul Neto had the best game of his career, scoring 22 points off the bench behind Donovan Mitchell in just 20 minutes. That included 3-for-6 3-point shooting and only 1-for-4 free throw shooting.

Neto was more aggressive offensively than I've ever seen him, taking advantage of the space he was given and attacking in pick and roll to get himself baskets.

He also even had a block (!) and a steal on the defensive end, though struggled just as frequently as the rest of the Jazz as far as keeping players in front of him.

Give Neto credit for attacking the defense where the rest of his teammates were pretty reluctant to. Neto's a limited player and probably won't get a ton of time when Rubio comes back. But he has a chance to earn himself a place in the rotation as the backup point guard instead of the Jazz finding a way to split the minutes between Rubio and Mitchell.

3. Do more of a good thing

Derrick Favors had a great game six days ago against these same Brooklyn Nets, scoring 24 points and picking up 12 rebounds to lead the Jazz to a win against a small Nets roster.

The Nets went even smaller tonight, starting Trevor Booker at the center position. But this time, Favors didn't take advantage, repeatedly choosing to stay on the perimeter rather than get involved down low. He did finish with 15 points, not so bad, but only seven rebounds in 30 minutes.

Here's my thing: as long as Favors is going to be the Jazz's starting center, he needs to roll to the basket! The Jazz had a couple of turnovers tonight because Favors stopped his roll short, instead, staying out on the perimeter so he could maybe get the ball to shoot his signature mid-range shot.

First of all, that shot just isn't as good of a chance as a layup at the rim. But secondly, rolling to the rim also opens up opportunities for his teammates, including the player that has the ball.

And finally, Jazz turn the ball over here because Favors starts rolling to the hoop but doesn't finish pic.twitter.com/JDNIL6lojP — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 18, 2017

While we're at it, let's also chastise Joe Ingles a little bit for not more frequently using his best skill: shooting the ball. Ingles has made every single shot he's taken over the last two games, which is a great accomplishment.

Unfortunately, he's only 9-9, and it hasn't been good enough for the Jazz to win their last two games. Here's what Ingles needs to realize: he's probably the Jazz's second or third best scorer in their starting lineup right now. He's letting his team down if he doesn't shoot the ball more.

Of course, that brings up the injuries again. If five of the Jazz's best players aren't injured, then Ingles and Favors don't have these roles. But while they do, they need to take advantage of their skillsets.

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