MIAMI — Rookie Keyonte George had one of his most offensively aggressive games of the season on Saturday, and though the Utah Jazz were on the losing side of a 126-120 result against the Miami Heat, there was a lot to like about how George played.
“Keyonte was incredibly aggressive the entire night,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Another night where I’m really pleased with how many 3s he found off the dribble — it’s a big part of his growth.
“It’s a sign of respect when they change the matchup and put Jimmy Butler on you. He did a really good job navigating pick-and-roll and I also thought that he had a good balance of not only shooting 3s, but there were some times where they pressed up on him and he did a good job driving the ball.”
That being said, Butler scored 37 points to lead the Heat to victory, 25 of which he got in the second half, and George saw some things about Butler’s second-half performance that made a real impression.
“He was getting fouled late game, he was creating the advantage, reading the game, not getting sped up,” George said of the Heat star. “I think those are the things that, as my time goes on in this league, those are the things I gotta add.”
Lauri Markkanen needs more help
Markkanen had a bit of a rough game, which isn’t easy to see when you look at his statline of 25 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.
But he had just eight points in the first half and then banged knees with Bam Adebayo in the second half and was limping through most of the fourth quarter.
“It probably hurt a little bit more because I’ve been dealing with a similar hit for more than a month,” Markkanen said. “When you get hit on the same spot, it feels a little worse.”
We’ll see in the coming days whether or not the injury requires any rest, but in the meantime, it’s important that George recognizes when Markkanen is struggling, because as the starting point guard, it’s his job to help Markkanen get going early on.
“Lauri has to have it going,” George said, recognizing that he should have done more. “Me trying to be a leader, I have to understand Lauri doesn’t have it going.
“You can see in that third quarter, we started playing a two-man game, getting the switch, trying to get him in rhythm. Doesn’t matter if he’s missing or making shots, he’s our best guy. You got to have him in rhythm in order for us to even have the chance to win the ballgame.”
It’s especially important for George to learn this lesson, because as the league continues to guard Markkanen as the Jazz’s best player, with more attention paid to him by defenses than ever before, it means that creating for himself is only going to get harder.