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SALT LAKE CITY — Early in the third quarter, Rudy Gobert collected the ball, rose high and delivered a two-handed slam all over Detroit’s Andre Drummond. That was symbolic to how that matchup went on Monday night. And that's the reason the Jazz were able to escape with a 100-94 win over the Pistons at Vivint Arena.

“Andre is big, but Rudy is a little bigger, a little longer,” Kyle Korver said.

That’s probably oversimplifying it, but that about summed it up.

Gobert finished with a career-high tying 25 rebounds and 18 points as he gobbled up every rebound that came close. And against Drummond, who leads the league in second-chance points, that was key. Gobert and the Jazz kept the Pistons to just five second-chance points on the night.

With both teams shooting under 40 percent on the night, Gobert’s activity on the glass kept the Jazz ahead at the end. It was Utah’s fourth straight win as it improved to 24-21 on the year.

“Rudy’s contribution doesn’t always show up on the box score,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. “Tonight, Rudy’s contribution showed up pretty highlighted.”

That was seen on the glass and by just how dominant the Jazz’s defense was in the second half Monday.

The Utah players took their time coming out for the second half. There was a reason for that: Snyder was keeping their attention.

“I think the coaching staff does a great job of showing us where we are lacking in the first half,” Korver said. “We barely got out there to shoot before the second half started; we were going through so much film.”

That proved to be quite effective. Utah held Detroit to just 35 points in the final two quarters and had a defensive rating of just over 71 in the second half. It was an elite performance on that end.

The Pistons scored just two field goals — both Blake Griffin 3-pointers — in the final seven minutes of the game. But the Jazz weren’t much better.

With 49 seconds remaining, Donovan Mitchell made a hesitation move and then used his long reach to convert a layup through contact. That layup also ended a nearly six-minute long stretch where the Jazz failed to score a field goal.

That stretch may have proved disastrous on another night. But not with the way the Jazz were making plays on defense. From Gobert getting seemingly every rebound to even the likes of Grayson Allen getting up and making a highlight-reel worthy block.

“We realize it shouldn’t take us a half to figure it out,” Mitchell said. “But there are times where you just need a half to kind of figure things out then see things and I think that was the same case tonight.”

That’s been a common trend over the last couple weeks. Utah has now had comeback wins over Cleveland, Detroit (twice), Orlando and Chicago. And they have all followed similar scripts — a strong second half defensive with Mitchell leading the charge on the offensive end.

Mitchell did that once again on Monday.

The second-year star had 28 points on 9-for-21 shooting. It was his sixth straight game of at least 26 points. Korver added 19 points on five 3-pointers.

Mitchell’s late acrobatic layup put Detroit’s chances on life support — and then Joe Ingles delivered the dagger.

Jae Crowder passed the ball to Ingles in the corner, who nailed a 3-pointer with 24 seconds remaining.

“This was the persistence that you have to have when you are not having a good shooting night,” Snyder said. “You have to defend and we did that in the second half. When you are doing that, you are grinding, you are earning the right to make a shot.”