Keyonte George said that he felt a playoff vibe during the Utah Jazz’s 131-129 upset victory over the Detroit Pistons at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City. The 22-year-old brought the house down when he hit the game-winning floater with 2.1 seconds left to beat the Eastern Conference frontrunners.
“I think about it all the time,” George told Sarah Todd of Deseret News. “I go back to a specific game — we were playing OKC my rookie year, made a couple shots down the stretch, and I couldn’t even hear (head coach) Will (Hardy) talking to me face-to-face.”
“They show up every single night. It almost feels like a college atmosphere. Whenever it gets that loud, it’s fun. You feel the ground shaking,” he continued.
The Utah Jazz point guard finished the match with a game-high 31 points to go along with seven rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and five three-pointers on 12-for-22 shooting from the field in 35 minutes of action.
Utah Jazz News: Will Hardy breaks down the final play vs. Detroit Pistons
The game between the Utah Jazz and the Detroit Pistons went back and forth in the final 30 seconds. After Cade Cunningham made two clutch free throws to tie the game at 129 points, Utah went with a two-man game with Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen, and the former hit the go-ahead shot over Jalen Duren.
“We put Keyonte and Lauri at the top and let them play,” head coach Will Hardy said of the last play. “It’s something we’ve been doing a bunch of this year. It’s something they work on a lot, and Keyonte came up with a big one.”
With the victory, the Utah Jazz improved to 11-19 this season – good for 12th in the Western Conference. A tough test awaits them, as they’ll face the red-hot San Antonio Spurs on Saturday evening.
