OKLAHOMA CITY — Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz's 102-95 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from KSL.com's Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz respond to sloppy 19-0 Thunder run with one of their own

The Jazz were handling the difficulties of Game 2 with impressive skill when, all of a sudden, the focus stopped.

The Jazz had a 9-point lead with just over six minutes left in the third quarter. Then Russell Westbrook waltzed into an open three, with no one guarding him in transition. On the ensuing play, the referees incorrectly called an 8-second violation on Ricky Rubio. Paul George then drove, hit a floater. The next possession, Rudy Gobert threw away a solid defensive possession by attempting an outlet pass, intercepted by Westbrook, who then assisted a Carmelo Anthony three.

Utah called timeout, but the run wasn't over. Rubio and Royce O'Neale blew a switch, letting George take and make a wide-open three. On the next possession, Rubio turned the ball over, and Westbrook got another easy two in transition. Then Donovan Mitchell went too hard on a dunk and missed it. Then he tried to make up for his mistake by blocking Corey Brewer's transition attempt. Instead, it was a goaltend. Dante Exum and Jae Crowder blew a switch, giving an easy layup to Jerami Grant. Finally, Anthony exploited a mismatch with Mitchell by hitting a shot over him.

The run was complete: 19-0 in the course of five minutes. It was exactly the kind of run you'd expect a playoff-inexperienced team to give up — filled with mental errors, turnovers, and lack of communication in the face of a loud crowd. I don't usually blame bad play on lack of experience, but it was so many mistakes in such a small period of time that it sure seemed that way.

But for whatever reason, it didn't seem that way to those experiencing it. Joe Ingles was legitimately shocked when he was informed postgame that the Thunder had gone on a 19-0 run, it felt smaller to him.

"19-0? I knew they went on a run, I didn’t know it was 19-0. I can’t even… that’s crazy. That’s surprising," Ingles said. "I guess it’s good it didn’t feel like that? I mean, we can’t let them do that, 19-0 is crazy."

More importantly, it felt like nothing to Mitchell, the rookie. He scored seven points in the final minute of the third quarter, turning a 10-point deficit into a much more manageable five-point deficit at the end of the third.

And he continued to attack throughout the fourth quarter, ending up with 13 points.

Mitchell took nine shots in the final period, making 0-4 of his threes. But when he was attacking the basket, he was sublime, attacking with the kind of agility that, frankly, has never existed in a Jazz uniform before.

Mitchell wasn't alone, of course. He got help from Rubio, who hit two critical threes. His big men, Derrick Favors and Gobert, collected eleven rebounds. But it was Mitchell who most made an impression on a game that, given how well they played for 43 minutes, they needed to win.

"As much as anything, our team stayed together. We felt we needed to rely on our defense and that's what we did," Jazz head coach Quin Snyder summed up the run. "Donovan's aggressiveness on the offensive end fueled us there."

2. Derrick Favors, Rudy Gobert beasting on the boards

Oklahoma City is the league's best offensive rebounding team, averaging 12.5 per game. A large part of that is due to Steven Adams, who averaged more than five per contest in the regular season, but Westbrook, Grant and Brewer also all contribute at least one per game.

But on Wednesday night, the Jazz were the aggressor on the boards. Part of this was because Adams was put into foul trouble with two quick ones in the first quarter. When Gobert put himself on the bench with two fouls two minutes later, Favors knew he'd have to play center for a majority of the rest of the half.

He took advantage, just feasting on the size advantage he enjoys over Grant and Anthony, who both unsuccessfully tried to limit him on the boards. Here, he tips it to himself repeatedly before securing it over his shorter opposition, like an older brother toying with his sibling on the playground.

I also loved Favors' decision making after he got the rebound. Sometimes, players in that situation have a tendency to force up tough putback layups, but Favors repeatedly found teammates after securing the ball. Most impressive was this sneaky dump to Jonas Jerebko for two easy points.

Gobert also made a contribution late, with six rebounds coming in the fourth quarter. Honestly, his were easier than Favors' early in the game, but he also found the ability to catch the rebound, secure it and make free throws down the stretch of the game. After starting the game 0-4 from the charity stripe, Gobert finished 7-8.

While it's easy to say that Adams' absence allowed the Jazz to rebound, it wasn't just that: they actually got a slightly higher percentage of their own misses with Adams on the court (the same isn't true of OKC's misses, where Adams' offensive rebounding really helped). The Jazz were able to take advantage of Adams being up on the perimeter, letting Favors and Gobert work against smaller Thunder players down low.

3. Ricky Rubio's near-triple-double turnaround

After Game 1, the Jazz needed to find a second scorer beyond the spectacular Mitchell. It came in the form of Rubio, who upped his game in a major way in Game 2 to score 22 points.

Rubio didn't shoot the ball well overall, going just 6-16 from the field. But because the Thunder were so aggressive in leaving him, he got eight pretty open 3-point looks and knocked five of them down. After a 1-12 performance on open shots in Game 1, and nailing zero threes, the Jazz getting a majority of their 3-point performance from Rubio (they only made nine overall) was incredibly helpful.

But just as important as Rubio's outside shooting was his smarts. Rubio was much more patient about taking his shot in Game 2 than in Game 1, instead, realizing that the Thunder were helping from the weak side on Jazz big men rolls. That meant he could find his teammates open, picking up nine assists.

No player is better than Rubio at using ball fakes to get easy points. I thought this play was screaming for Rubio to kick the ball to Ingles for a three, but Rubio brilliantly faked the pass out to instead set Gobert for an alley-oop down low.

Snyder agreed about the importance of Rubio's game.

"He did a great job finding people on the floor and getting everybody involved, particularly in pick-and-roll, just making reads that we didn't make in the first game," Snyder said. "When he does that, he starts a chain on our offense that we need."

The Jazz figured it out and partially due to Rubio, scored enough to win.

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