A tick over six seconds left. Jazz leading the Warriors by one. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry have combined for 69 points in the early-season favorite for Game of the Year -- and who wins it for Golden State on a tip-in with 0.3 seconds left?

Jonas Jerebko. 

As far as regular-season games go, particularly this early in the season, you'd have a hard time finding a more soul-crushing loss than this for the Jazz, who were just completely lights out all night only to be dragged down from behind and bested by probably the only team in the league that could've won this game. Warriors 124, Jazz 123. Just an incredible basketball game. 

Get this: The Jazz hung 81 points on the Warriors ... in the first half! Joe Ingles was 7 of 11 from three for a career-high 27 points. The Jazz shot 46 threes as a team, and made 41 percent of them. The energy in the building was through the roof, even by Utah's crazy atmosphere standards. The Jazz had Golden State down by as much as 16 and were threatening to really pull away. 

But those Warriors third quarters, man. Curry got loose. They buckled down on defense, scrapping and clawing like an up-and-coming team trying to crack the playoffs rather than one that has won three of the last four NBA titles, and by all rights shouldn't give two licks about the second game of the season. 

But that's the thing about the Warriors: They do care. I know they slacked off a little last year and only won 58 games. But that notwithstanding, this, for people who have really watched this team as it enters the fifth year of its dynastic run, is the truest identity of these Warriors: They have something to prove. Always. They are all so damn competitive, and they all love playing so much, that these games that shouldn't matter to them, do matter. When they're down big and most teams would pack it in, they don't. They keep playing. Keep shooting. For all their talent, it is the most remarkable thing to watch, just how deeply they believe they can win any game, no matter the hole they're in. 

The Jazz are a force, too. This wasn't some crazy game that they caught lightning in a bottle and just got hot. I mean, they did get hot. There was one back-and-forth sequence in the first half when it became difficult to not laugh at the rate threes were falling. Seriously, watch this barrage of bombs the Jazz dropped in the second quarter alone:

After a doubleheader dud to open the season, this Friday night national TV slate was bonkers. First Kawhi lifted the Raptors past the Celtics in what I thought was going to be the early leader for Game of the Year, but then Utah and the Warriors went nuclear. Listen, I am the king of getting ahead of myself watching sports. I get caught up in things. I admit it. But I think the Rockets got a lot worse this offseason, and it's hard for me to consider any team that gives significant minutes to Carmelo Anthony a true title contender. Is Utah the newest, biggest threat to Golden State in the West? Is it too early to say that? I don't know, man. They are pretty damn good. 

The Warriors are just better.