Before the Utah Jazz left the Houston airport, they wanted to pack their suitcase with a win. In a game of big runs, they did enough to grab the perfect souvenir, winning 116-108 to even the conference semifinals one game apiece.

The win helps the Jazz break an 11-game losing streak in conference semis, and they were led by, who else, Donovan Mitchell at the point. Mitchell had tied his postseason high assist figure with five dimes before the end of the first quarter, and he didn’t stop there. By the end of the game, Mitchell had 17 points and 11 assists, to only three turnovers. Houston’s James Harden did his thing by scoring 32 points, but Utah’s defense limited him to 2-for-10 shooting from deep.

Three-point shooting tells the story.

Unlike game one, Houston was cold from deep which helped the Jazz get the win. In game one, Houston made 17 of 32 from three, but Wednesday night told a different story: 10-for-37. The Jazz defense did a great job of running Houston off the line to make sure shooters didn’t get into a rhythm. The Jazz were also quick to rotate and make sure hands were up anytime a three was hoisted.

For the Jazz, it was also a tale of two games. On Sunday they made seven threes but doubled it up in the win: 15 triples. Utah’s playoff average comes out to 10 makes a game from three, which shows that shots were statistically bound to drop after a worse-than-usual Game 1 shooting performance. It’s certainly a key to the series: contain and deploy the threes.

Who led the barrage? Joe Ingles, of course. Ingles had 27 points on 7-for-9 shooting while also playing his style of defense on both Harden and Chris Paul. At one point, CP3 and Ingles were talking, as you would expect, and got double-technicals. On the next Jazz offensive possession, Ingles knocked a three and stared down Houston along the way. Talk the talk, walk the walk.