In a heartbreaker for the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a close win in Salt Lake City, 108-106.
The controversy at the end is the story of this one. On the final play of the game, Utah was trying to inbound the ball, and Keyonte George looked like he might have been pulled to the ground before a pass was made. Here’s the play.
It’s a tough finish for Keyonte George, who was fantastic in this one again. George was one of the best players on the floor, scoring 27 points (10/23 FG, 4/10 3PT) with 8 assists and 5 rebounds. George is getting better night after night and looking like a real piece for the future. Night after night, George is evolving as a playmaker and creating great looks for teammates. He’s also scoring more efficiently and continues to get to the line at a high rate.
There’s no denying that Keyonte George has become one of the big successes of the current Utah Jazz rebuild.
The other player that’s making strides every single night is Ace Bailey. Bailey is getting more and more comfortable and is making jaw-dropping plays a regular thing. This putback dunk was fantastic!
And this alley-oop was unreal!
But what’s really exciting is how impressive a passer Bailey is. He’s proving to be so much more than he was given credit for coming out of Rutgers.
The patience with this and the perfect pass to the corner is impressive stuff.
And then this play, where he drives to set up the easy dunk for Kyle Filipowski, is great basketball.
The best part of this season is going to be watching Ace improve night after night.
Finally, a big reason Utah lost this one was Lauri Markkanen’s ineffectiveness. Markkanen was off most of the night shooting and didn’t seem to have the legs to improve. It’s one of the rare bad shooting nights for Markkanen this season, and we’ll see if this is a slump or just one night. That said, he still managed 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. Not bad for an “off” night.