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His team had held their opponents to 81 points, but Jazz coach Quin Snyder wasn't sure how to evaluate his team's defense after Wednesday's win over the Dallas Mavericks.

"This was an unconventional game," he said.

Dallas had used the usually smooth-shooting power forward Dirk Nowitzki at center for much of the night, posing some interesting matchups and dilemmas for Utah's big men, as Jazz center Rudy Gobert had to fight through screens and switches and try to race back to Nowitzki at the 3-point line.

But in the end, Nowitzki's final line — nine points on 4-of-14 shooting — and the Mavs' offensive struggles might simply have shown that the Jazz defense will try to get up for any kind of test this season.

"We can handle anything," Gobert said.

The Jazz (3-2) have held opponents to an average of 87 points over their past four games. They've seen an opponent top 100 points only once, an on a night when the Portland Trail Blazers' shooters were on fire. And as they sit, the Jazz currently rank 11th in the NBA when it comes to defensive efficiency.

"Collectively, having some pride to defend," Snyder said. "… that to me, that's who we are."

But they want more.

"We're big, we're athletic," Hill said. "We've got a lot of smart guys in different positions. It's all mental. We're going to be as good as we can do mentally, when everyone locks in and knows their part and knows their role and feeds off each other."

The Jazz knocked down a dozen more 3-pointers Wednesday after dropping 15 triples the night before.

But ask around the Utah Jazz locker room and they know they won't always have the hot hand. And when that happens, they want to be able to rely on Gobert or Derrick Favors getting a hand on shots in the paint, or perhaps Hill or Danté Exum getting their hands in the passing lanes.

"That's who we want to be," Gobert said. "That's the identity of the team. We've got to be consistent. We're not going to make shots every night, but we're going to play defense every night."

afalk@sltrib.com

Twitter: @aaronfalk