Jazz PG Hill scores 30 while tormenting former club
SALT LAKE CITY -- George Hill scored a season-high 30 points in his first game against his former team and the Utah Jazz ran away with a 109-100 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Saturday night.
Gordon Hayward added 27 points while Rudy Gobert chipped in 19 points and 11 rebounds for Utah. The Jazz (29-16) won a season-best sixth straight game.
Paul George, Thaddeus Young and Jeff Teague scored 19 points apiece to lead Indiana. The Pacers (22-21) trailed wire to wire despite cutting Utah's lead to a basket at one point in the third quarter.
The Jazz hit all the right notes on offense and defense over four quarters. Utah had 24 assists on 39 baskets and scored 21 points off 17 Indiana turnovers.
Utah jumped out to an early 13-5 lead behind a pair of baskets from Hayward and back-to-back dunks from Gobert. Indiana briefly cut into the lead, drawing within 15-11 on a pair of baskets from Young and George.
Hayward kept the Pacers from getting closer in the first quarter. He drained a pair of long jumpers to bookend a short spurt that gave Utah its first double-digit lead at 23-13. Alec Burks and Hill hit a pair of 3-pointers to push the lead to 34-21 in the final minute of the quarter.
Indiana cut the deficit to single digits again at 34-26 on a basket from Aaron Brooks a minute into the second quarter. At that point, Utah slammed the door shut on the Pacers for the remainder of the half.
The Jazz scored on four straight possessions, culminating in another Hill 3-pointer to take a 43-27 lead. They took a 60-50 lead into halftime before Indiana made another rally.
George made back-to-back jumpers to fuel a 10-2 spurt to open the third quarter. Myles Turner capped the spurt with two more back-to-back baskets, cutting Utah's lead to 62-60.
The Jazz countered with a 12-0 run, highlighted by back-to-back baskets from Hayward, to stretch their lead back to 74-60. Hill finished off the spurt with a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws. He matched his previous season-high of 25 points before quarter's end.
Utah led by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter, going up 90-72 after Gobert and Hill scored baskets on consecutive possessions. Indiana's comeback efforts were hampered when George fouled out with 6:41 remaining in the game and was simultaneously ejected after picking up a technical foul.
NOTES: Jazz SG Rodney Hood missed his third straight game after suffering a bone contusion and hyperextended knee versus Orlando on Jan. 14. ... Indiana F Paul George leads the NBA in free-throw percentage (92.9). George entered Saturday's game with a streak of 23 consecutive made free throws. ... Utah C Rudy Gobert is the first NBA player to have a 25-point, 25-rebound game this season after totaling career highs in points (27) and rebounds (25) against Dallas on Friday. Gobert is just the fourth player in Jazz franchise history to accomplish the feat. ... The Pacers are 8-3 this season when G Jeff Teague dishes out 10 or more assists in a game.