Keyonte George finally got the poster dunk he’s been looking for, and a career-high to go with it

Keyonte George has been itching to collect his first poster, looking for the right moment to dunk on someone with authority.

He’s actually been waiting for it his whole life. George has been dunking the ball since he was in 8th grade, but he had never dunked on someone. Well, the wait is over.

That moment came on Monday night at the Delta Center with 30 seconds left in the first half of a 114-112 Utah Jazz win over the New Orleans Pelicans.

Simone Fontecchio got out in transition after picking up a rebound off a Brandon Ingram miss. He had John Collins on his left and George coming in from the right and chose to pass the ball off to George, who knew what he had to do, despite Pelicans guard Dyson Daniels being between him and the basket.

“Simo had the ball on the fast break and I knew John was on his left,” George said. “If he zipped the ball to me early I knew I was gonna throw the lob to John, but he threw it a little late. I was like, well, I can’t lay it up. I gotta go dunk it.”

He saw Daniels jump and went for it anyway. He fell to the floor and didn’t even know if he made the dunk. But he knew his hand hit the rim and he heard the crowd’s reaction and that was all the confirmation he needed.

“Amazing,” George said. “First of many, hopefully.”

It was a good night for George, who finished with a career-high 19 points to lead the Jazz in their second straight win over the Pelicans. Ten of his points came either at the rim or the free throw line, which is notable.

George came out of Baylor known for his scoring ability, and especially his ability to make jump shots. But, as the lead guard for the Jazz, he needs to be able to pressure the rim and to finish there, whether there’s contact or not, in order for the rest of the team to benefit from the spacing and movement that it provides.

“He can’t live his whole life on jump shots,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said.” That’s just a hard way to go. And he really does have a burst, he has a change of pace … It’s a big part of being a top level guard — the ability to get downhill, the ability to draw fouls, the ability to finish — and he’s showing improvement.”

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The Jazz training and player development staff addressed this early on in training camp with George, letting him know that he would need to work on his finishing in order to have the best chance to get minutes and also to stay on the floor.

It requires a lot from George physically but also means that he needs to be aggressive and to be able to differentiate between times when he needs to make plays for others and times when he needs to just go at the rim with strength.

“The dunk was probably one of my favorite plays of the game, just because of how aggressively he went to the rim,” Hardy said. “We need that from Keyonte. That play and then the 3 that he hit to put us up seven, just the confidence of those two plays, where he almost wasn’t thinking at all. That’s what we’re trying to get him to do more of.”

There is, of course, room for improvement, this being just the 17th NBA game of George’s young career, and he’ll be the first to say the ways that he can still get better.

“Finishing high off the glass, I’m working on my pickups, keeping the ball on the side of my body, keeping away from the defender,” George said. “Been a couple games this year where I’ve gotten stripped multiple times. So just trying to be physical and play through the bump.”

Overall it was a good night for George who added three assists, five rebounds, and two steals to his career night. Though, he’s bound to have many more career nights as his rookie season progresses.