Jazz's Keyonte George Sounds Off on Brice Sensabaugh's Big Night

Keyonte George showed some love after the second-year wing had a strong performance.

Nov 26, 2024; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) dribbles around San Antonio Spurs forward Harrison Barnes (40) during the first half at the Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images / Christopher Creveling-Imagn Images

The Utah Jazz weren't able to continue on the winning side of things Tuesday night, as they came up short vs. the San Antonio Spurs in their fourth regular-season meeting against them, ultimately losing 115-128.

However, despite securing what would be their 13th loss of their first 17 games, the performance wasn't all bad for the Jazz when taking a step back. Names like Keyonte George, John Collins, and Collin Sexton all emerged with their own solid performances, but one who really stuck out of the bunch was second-year wing Brice Sensabaugh.

After seeing some up-and-down availability to start this season, Sensabaugh finished the game putting up some strong numbers on the offensive side of the ball, totaling 16 points in 27 minutes on 6/11 shooting from the field and 4/7 from three. It was his second-highest scoring mark of the year, with his best outing also coming against San Antonio just last week.

Following the contest, Keyonte George hit the podium to talk a bit about what he's seen from Sensabaugh leading up to another impressive showing.

"Some games, he plays. In some games, he's got DNPs, and in this league, it's all about staying ready-- and he stayed ready," George said. "I just told him when he wasn't playing, 'At some point, we're going to need you. At some point, you're going to get the opportunity. In that San Antonio game when we played them at their spot, he took it and ran with it."

Through the past ten games for the Jazz, Sensabaugh has only appeared in four of them, but he's remained prepared when his number is called-- averaging 10.0 points and 2.3 rebounds on 51.9/50.0/1.000 shooting splits.

With that type of play, it'll become much harder for Will Hardy to keep him out of the rotation-- especially considering Utah's currently ranked 25th offensive rating in the NBA.

"He's a shot-maker," George continued. "He can score the ball at all three levels. When he's aggressive, I feel like it makes us a better team. Obviously, we all make mistakes, but, continue to let him be the scorer that he is. When he gets going, he hardly misses. I know from the AAU days and the college days when he's aggressive and what it looks like."

"At the end of the day, he's a great ball player," George said. "We came in the same draft class, so we continually have conversations with each other. Just talking about what he sees, what I see, what I think... He stays in the film [room]. He works extremely hard no matter what the circumstances are. When you respect the game, the game is going to respect you back. So, that's what I think is what's happening with Brice right now."

Sensabaugh's next chance to find his way into the Jazz lineup looms in the second leg of a back-to-back on Wednesday night vs. the Denver Nuggets. With Lauri Markkanen's availability in question, it could open the door for another surprise on the way from Utah's young spark plug scorer.

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