SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 110-80 win over the Chicago Bulls from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz play well in very favorable circumstances

Yes, they were playing against the Chicago Bulls, perhaps the league's least talented team. The Bulls' best player is Robin Lopez, which is crazy. Their best offensive player is Lauri Markkanen, who is a rookie averaging 15 points per game, and their bench is as bad as sin.

They also probably match up very well against the Jazz. One of the Jazz's biggest weaknesses is their lack of quickness. Other than Donovan Mitchell, none of their players are reliably speedier than their opponents. But the Bulls have a worse version of the same problem: Lopez is rather immobile, Kris Dunn's first step isn't anything special, Denzel Valentine has never gotten by on athleticism even in college. You can go down the list.

And finally, there's also this: the Bulls were facing some of the toughest circumstances of any team in any situation in the league. Based on a formula constructed by sleep scientist Cheri Mah, we can now rate every game in the NBA season by the amount of fatigue an NBA team is likely to face on that night. This game was one of only eight this month that had a Mah score of eight or higher. We'll let ESPN.com explain:

The Bulls will be in the midst of a Western Conference road swing, and this contest will mark the third of a four-game trip and the second of a back-to-back set. So after playing the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Bulls will head to Salt Lake City — and lose an hour in the process — to face the Jazz, who will enter the game with a one-day rest advantage.

So with any stat in tonight's game, it's hard to figure out: Was it the Bulls being really bad, or was it the Jazz playing well? But holding the Bulls, or any NBA team, to an 87 defensive rating is a nice job. I thought the Jazz's starters did a great job of holding the Bulls outside of the paint, with only 36 Bulls points in the paint all night, where they shot only 50 percent (18-36 FG).

But again, how exactly were the Bulls supposed to get into the paint? They're the worst shooting team in the league anyway, 27th in rim attempts, and 28th in actually making those attempts. Then you add in the fact that they were tired and facing a pretty good rim protection defense in Utah, and it was always going to be a struggle.

The only time that the Jazz got themselves in trouble was when they fouled, giving Chicago 20 free throw attempts. But even that isn't an outrageous number, just barely above average. That that's my biggest criticism is an indication of how much of an easy night it was for the Jazz's defense.

2. Jonas Jerebko's good play on both ends

I was a little bit curious about the decision to start Jonas Jerebko when Rudy Gobert went down with injury, but it's been a pretty good move by Jazz head coach Quin Snyder.

One hint has been the plus-minuses over the last six games that he's started. In each case, he's outperformed the team's margin of victory or loss, except for tonight.

He's done it by playing pretty remarkably solid defense against some of the league's best players at their position. The biggest example was his very solid defense against Kristaps Porzingis, some of the best I've seen on him outside of LeBron James matching up against him for a few possessions a week ago.

Lauri Markkanen presented a similar, if less difficult challenge: Markkanen can shoot from the outside with aplomb, but has proven surprisingly adept at getting to the rim and scoring from there, too. And Jerebko absolutely shut Markkanen down: only three points and 1-9 shooting from the field.

"A lot of credit has to go to Jonas," front-court mate Derrick Favors said. "He did a great job defending him, making him take tough shots. Jonas played with a lot of energy today."

According to Jerebko, that matchup also was the first time Jerebko has faced a fellow Scandinavian in the NBA. That's fun.

This sequence tonight was textbook fastbreak defense:

🚫🚮🚫#CHIatUTApic.twitter.com/NPuSDDkIyO — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 23, 2017

On offense, Jerebko's ability to space the floor has added something too. He's now shooting 48.4 percent from the 3-point line in 14 games, and his teammates tell me they've noticed an increase in space when he's on the floor. He's not good enough to create his own shot, but he knows that, and so he passes the ball to a more capable teammate.

"He rarely holds the ball for a second, and sometimes less," Snyder said. And that's something that fuels our whole team."

3. Mitchell avoiding a 3-21 game

Remember two weeks ago, when Donovan Mitchell shot 3-21 against the Philadelphia 76ers at home? Then, in the first half against the Sixers, he shot 2-10. Tonight, he was 1-10.

The second halves of each game were wildly different, though. In the second half against Philly, Mitchell continued his bad shooting and went 1-11. Against the Bulls, he didn't take a single shot.

Instead, he added five assists against only one turnover and added three rebounds in only eight minutes on the floor. He was able to find another way to help his team win besides scoring the ball.

Donovan in a giving mood tonight - 7 dimes for the Rook. 👊#CHIatUTApic.twitter.com/dk5AkeDwWB — Utah Jazz (@utahjazz) November 23, 2017

"I think coming into the game, they knew I wanted to attack. I missed a bunch of easy shots, but they knew that I was trying to score, so I tried to do the opposite," Mitchell explained. "A lot of times they’re waiting for me to take the layup, as opposed to making the right defensive play, so they all collapse on me and guys are wide open.”

Snyder agreed after the game. "He’s got good vision. We talk about Donovan and how he is going to get better and what he can do and the word we always bring up is, ‘reads.’ I thought he was doing a good job of reading those situations."

That vision matters and also impacts the position Mitchell can play in years to come. If he can be a capable point guard, the ball can be in his hands far more frequently.

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