Houston Rockets defeat Utah Jazz 117-91, season is over but there's much to be happy about in Jazzland

The most immediate thing we can think of, naturally, is that the Utah Jazz got blasted on the road by their bitter rivals, the playoff bound Houston Rockets. The Rockets dominated early with defense, blocking shots, driving to the hoop, making the extra pass, and hitting open threes. We've seen this movie before. We saw this movie like a number of weeks ago when we last played in Houston. So it's not a surprise to lose to this talented club. Similarly, it's not a surprise to get down after such a loss. But instead of looking at this as a loss, or "the loss" that defines this team going forward. Recognize that this is just one game out of 82, and one loss that is entirely lost in a sea of great things that happened this year. For Utah Jazz fans at the 82 game mark it's important to recognize the huge steps this team has made going forward, and the progress from last season.

This game may be a loss, but overall the season was a resounding success. I couldn't be happier with what our guys have done in year one of Quin Snyder when it comes to the defense. We're playing better defense right now (this game excused) than some of the Jerry Sloan playoff teams did. Let's not forget that this team has an average age of 23, had 9 different guys play here in part or all of their rookie seasons, and relied heavily upon DLeague cast-aways after Alec Burks went down for the season.

And yet this team still played hard every night, and became giant killers for a while.

The offense will grow, and get more complex next season. And our younger players will be more equal to the task of running what Quin wants.

Houston isn't going to win the title. But the Jazz are on a trajectory to get to the NBA Finals in a few years.  When historians write the story of our first championship they'll say that it started with this season.

Overall this season is a positive. And that's what I want to remember from this season, and not this last game against a motivated Houston team that needed the win more than we did. They won. They played great. Our guys didn't give up and showed a lot of heart. We played our worst guys, they played their best. The end result in the small picture favors them.

But in time we'll have the last laugh.

This has been the best season in my tenure here as 'the boss' or whatever. Sure, we didn't make the playoffs, but we will. Thank you to all of the members of my team here at The Dunk, thanks to the people at SB Nation who keep things running, and most of all -- thanks to all of you who decided to load up at least one of our pages this season. Without you there is no community, and no demand for our content. It's a joy to write 100+ posts a month about a team you care for, for people who want to read what you write. So thank you!

And remember this -- the only people who AREN'T counting the days till next season are the team execs, owners, players, and fans of other Western Conference teams. It's going to be a great season next year, building on the good one we just had.

GO JAZZ GO!