SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 96-87 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz defense huge against star-laden OKC

Oklahoma City might have had the best offseason in the NBA this summer when they added Carmelo Anthony and Paul George to their squad, only giving up Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, Doug McDermott, and Enes Kanter in the process.

But the Jazz made life difficult for the three stars. Anthony had the best night, scoring 26 points, but it took him 26 shots to score those. And look at how many of those were long twos, the least efficient shot in basketball!

George had 22 points, but it took him 19 shots to do so. He also added six turnovers against only two assists. The Jazz outscored the Thunder by 14 points while PG-13 was on the floor. That's especially surprising because rookie Donovan Mitchell guarded George for long stretches of the game.

Finally, last year's MVP Russell Westbrook had 13 rebounds and nine assists, but only scored six points all night on some bad percentages (2-11 from the field, 1-5 from the 3-point line, 1-4 from the free-throw line). Even worse, he had seven turnovers, and the Jazz outscored the Thunder by 18 while he was on the floor. Last year, the Thunder fell apart when Westbrook was on the bench, but tonight it was the opposite.

Some of the blame for this has to do with Oklahoma City's clearly still-developing offense. Nearly all night, the Thunder played a my-turn, your-turn kind of offense, which makes it much easier to guard the stars.

But I honestly think most of the credit should go to a terrific Jazz defense. They allowed only 20 points in the paint all night. That was for two reasons: they played a very switch-y kind of scheme, designed to keep the Thunder in front of the Jazz defenders.

Usually, teams with stars are okay with that kind of defense, because skilled players like Westbrook, George and Anthony can dominate easily against the weird mismatches it allows. And sure, that meant some times Ricky Rubio was matched up against Anthony, and the latter shot over the former.

The thing is: those are long twos anyway, so even if they're easy, the Jazz aren't so upset about giving those up. The kind of mismatch problems the Jazz do worry about are when the stars can drive to the rim and either finish, get to the line, or kick it out for a three.

That's when the Jazz's fantastic help defense comes into play. For a team that's only played three games, the Jazz are already elite at helping the helper, rotating in space and forcing difficult passes that have a chance of being intercepted. It all added up to the Thunder scoring just 20 points in the paint, a low for any game this season (the closest performance by another defense early: 26 points).

It's going to be impossible for the Jazz to play this well defensively all season long. But this kind of defensive performance (in a back-to-back, no less!) is really, really impressive.

2. Rubio's passing

Rubio only had five assists Saturday night, so it's kind of a weird time to talk about his passing and vision creating good looks for his teammates. His shot was also not at its best, shooting only 5-14 and 2-8 from three.

But then you look at Rubio's plus-minus tonight, and he had the best of any player in the game, a +13. Why? Well, because Rubio has a truly special feel for proceedings and an incredible ability to open up the defense in very tricky ways.

Here's a couple of plays that I liked from tonight's game. First is this one: As the Jazz break in transition, Rubio spends the entire time looking in one direction, knowing he'll find Thabo Sefolosha in the corner for the wide open three (which missed, but still, great look). If Rubio had looked at Sefolosha sooner, the OKC defense would have swapped over and guarded the strong side, but Rubio changed which side was the strong side just by using his eyes.

Ricky Rubio uses his eyes to get an open corner 3, manipulating OKC to get back: pic.twitter.com/8BVtXZegWI — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) October 22, 2017

Another one: This time in the fourth quarter, the Thunder have started to trap pick and rolls with Joe Ingles. That means Gobert's in the paint and open, but Ingles can't get him the ball without looping it over and risking a turnover. So Rubio, knowing this is a possibility, comes and opens up for Ingles, and swings it inside to Gobert as soon as he touches the ball for an easy dunk.

Ricky Rubio's quick assist to Rudy Gobert inside: pic.twitter.com/emL95FvRnJ — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) October 22, 2017

Rubio led the Jazz in minutes with nearly 37, probably more than Snyder would like. But Rubio's court vision and smarts played a big role in the Jazz's win, Snyder had to stay on the floor.

3. Ekpe Udoh expanding his role

"Know thyself." — Socrates

Before the game, Snyder talked about Udoh's performances so far this season in terms of a mantra that the Jazz give all of their players:

"Know your role, accept your role, and star in your role. Ekpe stars in his role."

Udoh's been fantastic during the Jazz's first three games. He's a +46 in the 44 minutes he's played, despite scoring a grand total of seven points. He's so good at everything else, though: he moves his feet well in the perimeter defensively, surprises people with his length inside, communicates well (both Mitchell and Gobert mentioned this as a strength of Udoh's). And then on offense, well, he screens well, passes well and fights for the offensive boards.

"Ekpe knows who he is as a player. He can defend. I think he's gotten more efficient offensively, where he doesn't take any bad shots," Snyder said. "He knows who he is, and I mean that in a complementary way. He really gravitates to the things that he does well."

That's why he won the backup big man spot, despite most observers thinking Jonas Jerebko would be that player after the two were signed nearly simultaneously this summer. And that's why his minutes have expanded every game, playing 15:30 tonight off the bench.

It kind of reminds me of Ingles, who came to the NBA from the Euroleague and started his time with the Jazz as the 15th man. To use Snyder's terminology, he starred in that role, so his role was expanded. Last season, the Jazz thought he would be the fifth wing. Instead, injuries bumped him up to the fourth wing spot; he starred there. Then he became the third wing, starred there, until he started in the playoffs and eliminated one of the Clippers biggest threats, J.J. Redick.

Just like with Ingles, all of a sudden Udoh is playing a bigger role than expected, just three games into his first season with the Jazz. And it's all because he took a good piece of advice from Socrates.

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