SALT LAKE CITY — Three thoughts on the Jazz's 95-92 loss to the Detroit Pistons from KSL.com's Utah Jazz beat writer, Andy Larsen.

1. Jazz's execution down the stretch

The Jazz had a chance to win this game. Down just one point with two minutes left, the Pistons' Reggie Jackson scored five consecutive points to put the Pistons up six with a minute left to go. At that point, the Jazz had just a 2.6 percent chance to win. And then Hayward assisted a quick Gobert dunk, Jackson forced a shot too quickly, and the Jazz had the ball and a four-point deficit with 47.8 seconds left.

This is where it's critical that the Jazz get something quickly. The best chance to win the game at this point is to score before the 30 second mark on the shot-clock, then play good defense, then have a chance to win the game on the final possession. That's the template the team used against Sacramento two weeks ago, and worked right up until Rudy Gay hit a game-winner.

Tonight, though, they spent the entire shot clock getting a difficult Hayward look that didn't go down. And while Utah ended up getting the ball back after the Pistons went out of bounds, at that point, they had to play the foul game, down two possessions with under 24 seconds left. The Jazz need to be able to go into something much more quickly there, but instead, missed an opportunity.

And yet! Despite that, Rodney Hood hit a tough 3 with 7 seconds left, giving the Jazz one last opportunity to tie the game after Jackson's made free throws. Here's the play they ran:

Here's the Jazz's last play tonight, in case you were curious: pic.twitter.com/7l8yTbos33 — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 26, 2016

Snyder explained what the Jazz were trying to do:

"Trey Lyles was open, he just didn't pop. If you look at the film, he was open on the wing, he just missed the timing on it. I think Gordon may have been open too. We didn't execute that pass. We're down three and needed a three. I thought we executed the play okay, we just didn't finish it."

Or as Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy explained it, "The best look they had was Hayward and he missed it."

2. Neto injury, Burke's performance forces Jazz to play no-PG

Raul Neto left the game in the first quarter after getting a blow to the face. He's been diagnosed with a concussion, and will now undergo the NBA's concussion protocol. This makes it very unlikely that he plays in Wednesday's game, as he will have to be symptom-free for 24 hours before undergoing tests to ensure he's back to baseline standards.

That especially hurts because Quin Snyder has stopped counting on Trey Burke. Burke didn't play in the fourth quarter at all, despite being the only healthy point guard on the roster. Instead, the Jazz played with three wings on the floor at all times.

Let's start here: Burke did a nice job setting up his teammates tonight, picking up six assists. That's his second-highest total of the season, and he did a great job of navigating pick and roll, getting into the paint and finding Favors on pocket passes.

That being said: the other parts of Burke's game were nowhere near good enough for the Jazz to win, which is why he didn't play in the fourth quarter. On offense, Burke was 0-8 from the field, and finished with 0 points.

But that wasn't even the worst part: Burke's defense on Reggie Jackson was very, very poor. Jackson shot scored 22 points on 10-13 shooting in the first three quarters. Jackson's a good scorer, but he's not usually an efficient one. This is especially not a good sign after he allowed Kemba Walker 52 points last week.

And quite frankly, Burke needs to be more mentally engaged. Here's this blow by from Jackson, after which he compounds his mistake by fouling Jackson for the and-one:

And yes, I'm a jerk. But Burke's defense also leaves something to be desired here... pic.twitter.com/aOaxDDk2Ib — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 26, 2016

Clearly, Burke thinks there's a Piston behind him, and is trying to shade Jackson away from the screener. But there is no screener. There is only Jackson driving past him. Yikes.

And then later on, the Jazz were having success with intentionally fouling Andre Drummond (1-10 on the night from the free-throw line). On the third opportunity, rather than fouling Drummond, he fouled Brandon Jennings (a career 80 percent free throw shooter).

Quin Snyder's reaction when he calls Hack-a-Drummond and Burke fouls Brandon Jennings instead... pic.twitter.com/RbmzdpqdEx — Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 26, 2016

This is monumentally ill-advised. If this were the first time the Jazz were fouling Drummond, Burke's mistake might be more understandable. But Burke has to see the pattern here, and when Snyder yells to foul, Burke has to understand. Snyder's and Burke's teammates' reactions say it all.

It's discouraging. Snyder has always complimented Burke's attitude with his move to the bench, and continued work on the season. This has been Burke's best NBA season yet, and by some distance too. But he's very difficult to play when he's making mistakes like the above on the defensive end.

3. Derrick Favors returns

One silver lining of tonight's loss was the return of Derrick Favors, who played nearly 20 minutes in his debut, including eight critical fourth quarter minutes. The Jazz outscored the Pistons by 11 when Favors was on the floor, underscoring his importance to the Jazz both offensively and defensively.

Consecutive good workouts for Favors this weekend signaled to the Jazz that he was ready to return in minutes Monday. The team kept his doubtful status to protect expectations, but then officially made him available to play after his workout about an hour before the game tonight.

Favors wasn't quite at 100 percent, clearly, but seemed to get better as the game went along. Playing 20 minutes Monday night sets him up for coming back to the starting lineup Wednesday, and probably full playing time Friday.

After the game, Favors answered questions about his injury. He noted that he felt more pain in his hip than his back, the initial injury spot. When the pain was at its worst, he said he couldn't move to tie his shoelaces. "It was hard for me to walk," Favors said.

He did, though, get out of some diaper changing duty on his newborn twins, which he wasn't too disappointed about.

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