Keyonte George game-winner ends double OT thriller between Jazz and Bulls

Keyonte George was feeling energized and ready for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bulls. The team came together for a final pregame word and when the huddle broke, George dapped up all of his teammates as he headed toward the court for tipoff. Then he took off his warmup shirt.

To his own shock, he wasn’t wearing a jersey under his warmup. Oops. He sprinted to the locker room to put his jersey on.

“I don’t know, he has three hours to get dressed, I don’t know how — I don’t know what happened, but I know that I looked out there and he wasn’t there, and we got a delay," Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.

“My jersey wasn’t on, that’s what happened,” George said, with an embarrassed laugh. “My age came out with that one.”

1 of 67

2 of 67

3 of 67

4 of 67

5 of 67

6 of 67

7 of 67

8 of 67

9 of 67

10 of 67

11 of 67

12 of 67

13 of 67

14 of 67

15 of 67

16 of 67

17 of 67

18 of 67

19 of 67

20 of 67

21 of 67

22 of 67

23 of 67

24 of 67

25 of 67

26 of 67

27 of 67

28 of 67

29 of 67

30 of 67

31 of 67

32 of 67

33 of 67

34 of 67

35 of 67

36 of 67

37 of 67

38 of 67

39 of 67

40 of 67

41 of 67

42 of 67

43 of 67

44 of 67

45 of 67

46 of 67

47 of 67

48 of 67

49 of 67

50 of 67

51 of 67

52 of 67

53 of 67

54 of 67

55 of 67

56 of 67

57 of 67

58 of 67

59 of 67

60 of 67

61 of 67

62 of 67

63 of 67

64 of 67

65 of 67

66 of 67

67 of 67

The Jazz were assessed a delay of game warning. Not a big deal if it’s the only one of the night (more on that later).

Fortunately, more than three hours later, in the very last second of a double-overtime thriller, George made up for his pregame flub by hitting a game-winning 3-pointer, giving the Jazz a 150-147 victory.

“To get that moment, and for Zay (Isaiah Collier) to trust me to make the shot,” George said. “It was just great to hear our crowd scream and yell and get back in the winning column.”

The Bulls had led by as many as 15, but the Jazz fought back early in the fourth quarter and even retook the lead. Then, with 5:42 left in regulation, the Jazz were issued a second delay of game. Uh oh.

This time it was because team attendants came to the court to wipe up sweat without being called to the court by the officials.

*Side note: Yes, team attendants go onto the court to clean up sweat regularly without being called to by officials. For example, after every free throw. But, there is precedent for officials calling delay of game warnings for non-requested sweat clean-up from the squeegee squad when it happens next to where the ball is being checked in. You can see the same thing happened during a Knicks game last season by watching the video here.

When that happens, the other team is awarded a technical free throw. After Coby White made the free throw and the Bulls had the next possession, a Nikola Vučević 3-pointer gave Chicago a one-point lead.

Had the Jazz lost this game in regulation by one point, George’s failure to have his jersey on could have been an incredibly big deal. Had George come to the court fully dressed and on time, that delay of game warning in the fourth quarter would have amounted to nothing.

But the Jazz were paced by 47 points from Lauri Markkanen on the night and George came alive after halftime. He scored 17 second-half points, 11 points in overtime and finished with 33 points and had the game-winning shot with 0.8 seconds left on the clock in double overtime.

George has been working hard to change his game, to make sure that the coaching staff and his teammates trust him, that he has the reputation of a complete player, to prove that he can be a leader. And even though he’s still just 22 years old, and makes mistakes sometimes (like forgetting to put on his work uniform) he deserves to have his moment in the spotlight.

“He does,” Hardy said. “Keyonte works really hard. He cares as much as any guy I’ve been around. He wants it bad. And I’m really happy for him.”