Jazz beat Nets in overtime with Isaiah Collier game-winner

Rookie point guard Isaiah Collier, who hit the game-winning layup for the Utah Jazz in their 112-111 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets Sunday night, deserves a lot of praise for his resilience Sunday and his perseverance throughout the course of the Jazz’s season.

Collier is putting in a lot of extra time to work on his shot and watch film on himself and all of his teammates in an effort to cut down his turnovers, and when he talks about his priorities, he seems to have a clear and level understanding of where he is at and what he needs to do to grow individually and grow into the kind of point guard the Jazz need.

All of that work and introspection seemed to be on display on Sunday.

Already having a great game, Collier blocked a 3-point attempt by Keon Johnson at the beginning of the fourth quarter and caught the ball inbounds heading the other way for a transition play.

Trailed closely by Johnson, who has a solid height advantage over the Jazz rookie, Collier went for the transition dunk — a move he knows he has to make because he’s been burned too many times getting blocked by bigger players on layups.

It was an incredible dunk that brought the crowd to its feet, but in the same breath that Jazz fans were cheering, they also gasped because Johnson made a play on the ball and when the two players’ bodies met in the air after running full speed, Collier’s hand slipped off the rim and he went careening back down to earth, head first.

“From my angle, it looked nasty,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “Isaiah also is as tough a kid as I’ve been around, so when he lays down for extra time, it worries me.

“I felt better when he sat up on the (stanchion), but then anytime you hear they’re gonna go check him out for concussion protocol and you have blood, it’s scary.”

Collier lay on his stomach for a while before pushing himself up and leaning against the stanchion. He said he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and the trainers said they needed to take him back for concussion testing.

“I recovered kind of fast in blocking shot,” Collier said. “I didn’t think he was really gonna jump for real, but I knew if he did, I was gonna try to hang on the rim.

“But I feel like, I don’t know. I don’t know if he tried to catch himself too or something. I’m not sure, but I fell on my face. It hurt for a little bit, but I’m good.”

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When Collier left the floor before taking his and-1 free throw, it led to a lot of people (myself included) learning about a very specific subsection in the NBA rulebook.

Usually when a player is fouled leading to free throws, if that player is unable to take the free throws because of injury, they can not reenter the game.

In those situations, the opposing team can then choose the player they want to replace the injured player at the free throw line.

The exception, it turns out, according to the rulebook is, “the player will be permitted to reenter if he was removed for a concussion evaluation, completed the evaluation required pursuant to the NBA Concussion Policy, and is deemed not to have a concussion.”

Under those specific circumstances, the team chooses its own replacement shooter from the players who were on the court, so the Jazz chose Brice Sensabaugh to take the and-1 free throw, he made it, and after getting cleaned up and cleared to return to the game, Collier came back in and was available to play.

The reward? A career-best 23 points to go with seven rebounds, seven assists and the game-winning layup with 2.4 seconds left in overtime.

“Isaiah is a good basketball player, and the stats reflect kind of a — you know the old-school term — he had a good floor game. He just did,” Hardy said.

““He did a lot of really good things. It wasn’t just some of the shots. He makes three 3s, which is great. We haven’t seen that from Zay yet this year, but the plays downhill to the rim, getting out in transition, the pace he plays with, his burst, and then obviously the last layup.”

It was a play that was drawn up and not one the Jazz had practiced. Sensabaugh inbounded the ball to Collier, who immediately saw a double team coming for him.

But he split the double-team, pushed the ball forward and sped up to meet the ball and then gathered for a tough shot. Had he not been able to come back into the game, had he not been able to clear the concussion testing, he would have had to watch from afar as his teammates battled through the fourth quarter and potential overtime.

Luckily, he was there to seal the victory.