Keyonte George scores 26 in Jazz loss to Hornets

It wasn’t easy for Keyonte George to accept the fact that his foot wasn’t feeling completely normal.

After spraining his left ankle on Dec. 19 in Detroit, George missed four games. He then returned for three games, but he was having some residual soreness that was nagging. So he missed the last five games with heel inflammation. The nine games missed were the longest he’s missed playing basketball in a very long time, if not the longest amount of time he’s ever been sidelined, and it was frustrating.

“It happened in Detroit, regular ankle sprain, and was just trying to get it back to as close to 100% as possible,” he said. “Obviously I came back and played those few games, but now I’m feeling like myself and can move. So I’m just happy to be out there with the guys.”

He returned to action on Wednesday night to score 26 points with six assists, four rebounds and two steals in the Utah Jazz’s shorthanded 117-112 loss to the Charlotte Hornets.

The offensive production was much needed from the team that was missing Lauri Markkanen (back spasms), John Collins (left hip injury management), Jordan Clarkson (plantar fasciitis), Johnny Juzang (right hand fracture) and Collin Sexton (rest).

“To see Keyonte play a game where takes 22 shots but also has six assists, it shows growth in his decision making and that you can do both,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

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Tank update

The game against Charlotte was one of three straight games that are going to be extremely important for the Jazz when considering the need to rack up losses for top lottery billing. Since Charlotte is one of the teams the Jazz are competing with at the bottom of the standings, getting a loss against them was important. The Jazz fell to 10-29 on the season and the Hornets improved to 9-28.

The Jazz now travel to New Orleans, where they’ll play a pair of games against the Pelicans — on Friday and Monday. The Pelicans are 10-32 on the season and have won their last two games.

Elijah Harkless

The Jazz’s recently signed Elijah Harkless, who officially joined the roster on Jan. 1, replacing David Jones-Garcia on a two-way deal, has played a couple games with the Stars and has played the last three games with the Jazz. And he’s been playing real minutes and really impressing every time he is on the court.

On Wednesday night, Hardy had a lot glowing things to say about how Harkless is adapting and proving his worth.

“Elijah’s tough, man. He’s physical,” Hardy said, beaming. “Takes a lot of pride in his defense. He dictates things defensively. I think there’s moments where you can get so focused on your positioning or execution that you become reactive defensively and you don’t ever dictate anything. ... I think that Elijah does a really good job of trying to force the issue, and he dictates where the ball goes and does a good job getting through screens. He’s got this like, annoying physicality. You can see guys starting to push off and getting frustrated with how physical he is off the ball. And clearly he’s worked a lot on his shooting ... and he’s learning on the fly. I mean, he got here four days ago, he’s had one practice. So he’s doing great.”