The Jazz hit the Rockets from all angles in their Game 2 win

Dante Exum dribbled the baseline and threw a nasty tomahawk down over P.J. Tucker with under a minute left to play. Everyone on the Jazz bench jumped out of their seats to celebrate. If any one of them were in the game, that could have been them, too.

The Utah Jazz built a 19-point lead in the first half, and in half the time it took them to build it, the Houston Rockets blasted right through it. But that didn’t scare the Jazz away from success late in Game 2. Instead, it pushed them toward it.

After James Harden scored 17 points in the third quarter along to wash Utah’s lead right away, the Jazz stayed the course and extended their lead back into double digits to finish with a 116-108 victory Wednesday night. There was no one player who was responsible for Utah’s win. It was a collective effort that powered Utah past the top-seeded Rockets.

Maybe Donovan Mitchell, who had a particularly poor shooting night (6-of-21 from the field, 2-of-8 from three), could be responsible for Utah’s success with his 11 assists that got each of his teammates involved. The Jazz outscored the Rockets by 14 in minutes that Mitchell played in.

Or maybe it was Joe Ingles, who had a playoff career-high 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting, including 11 in the first quarter on 4-of-4 shooting. It was probably Rudy Gobert with 15 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks, and even more altered shots. Or it could have been Exum, Derrick Favors, or Jae Crowder — each of whom turned in solid scoring efforts to help the Jazz to a victory.

“The biggest thing is we defended,” Mitchell said postgame. “We’ll take this win, but we need three more.”

The Jazz built their lead to as many as 19 in the first half by virtue of simply hitting shots, running a Gobert screen-and-roll into oblivion and taking advantage of a poor-shooting first half by Houston. Utah shot 55 percent in the first half to Houston’s 40.4 percent. The Rockets also couldn’t buy a three-point shot that they’ve built their livelihood on. They shot just 10-of-37 from deep in Game 2. That’s not customary of the league’s best offense.

Those poor numbers didn’t hold up in the third quarter when Harden went bananas, but they did in the fourth. After allowing the Rockets to creep back into the game in the third, the Jazz held Houston to just 24 percent shooting in the fourth quarter. If that’s the kind of defense Utah is going to play all series long, this could be a rough series for the Rockets.

The Jazz built a big lead early and proved they can hold their own against one of the toughest offenses in the league. If that’s not a confidence builder heading back to Salt Lake City for Game 3, then nothing is.