The Utah Jazz broke their four-game losing streak with a much-needed 127-122 home win against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday, as Keyonte George and Jusuf Nurkic came to play. The victory marked Will Hardy’s 100th career victory as an NBA head coach.
George scored a career-high 43 points to go along with three assists, two steals, and six three-pointers on 15-for-28 shooting from the field. Nurkic contributed 16 points, 18 rebounds, and 10 assists on 7-for-11 shooting from the field – marking his first triple-double since January 2019.
“They gave a ball to me. I don’t know if it was a game ball. It’s probably off the rack… Honestly, I think Key and Nurk should cut a ball in half, and each one take half of it home. Those two guys were amazing tonight,” head coach Will Hardy said of George and Nurkic via Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune.
“Man, I’m proud of our team,” he continued. “The resilience to play that hard and compete like that for all 48 minutes after being on the road 17 of the last 20 days, and coming back on a back-to-back against a good team that’s waiting on us here, it speaks to the character of the guys.”
Utah Jazz News: Keyonte George reflects on career outing vs. Minnesota Timberwolves
With Lauri Markkanen on the sidelines, Keyonte George took it upon himself to lead the Utah Jazz in scoring. When the Minnesota Timberwolves cut their lead to two points with just over a minute left, George hit a dagger three-pointer to put the game beyond doubt.
“It was a team effort tonight,” George told Carson Hilton of Deseret News. “That’s a tough team on the other end. (We’re) coming off the road, heartbreaking loss, and then we got to come in and play a tough team. We kind of were just like, ‘Just like be tired later.’”
Before last night, the Utah Jazz were 0-10 without Markkanen this season. The Finnish international has missed five straight games due to illness.
