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Want a good barometer of whether things are going well for the Utah Jazz? Check George Hill's stat line.
When the point guard scores 20-plus points, his team is 14-1 on the season. So as Hill goes, it seems, so go the Jazz. And on Wednesday night, the point guard and his team had gone the wrong way.
"I played like [expletive]," Hill said.
But two nights after his worst game of the season — and, in turn, the Jazz's worst defeat of the campaign — Hill got his squad on track, scoring a season-high 34 points to help the Jazz beat the Brooklyn Nets 112-97.
"That's why I said I wasn't concerned after the last game," said Jazz forward Gordon Hayward, who scored 12 points and had six assists Friday "There are going to be nights like that. Glad that he bounced back and glad that we bounced back as a team."
Hill finished his Friday night shift with seven assists, a pair of rebounds and 34 of the most efficient points in league history. The point guard hit 10 of his 12 field goals Friday, including all three of his 3-point attempts. He went 11 of 12 from the free throw line. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Hill joined Hall of Fame Karl Malone as one of nine NBA players in the past 50 years to score 34 points or more on 12-or-fewer attempts.
"He controlled the game," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. "He's crafty, so he knows how to bait you into fouls. That was one of our keys, keeping him off the free-throw line. He's smart and he's clever."
He and his teammates were also motivated after sleepwalking through 48 minutes of basketball en route to a 27-point blowout loss on Wednesday against Minnesota.
"That was on our mind," Hill said. "Everyone was pretty upset the way we played last game. It was really embarrassing. We knew that we let our fans down."
With six weeks left until the playoffs begin, the Jazz knew they couldn't afford a letdown against the last-place Nets, who had only recently snapped a 16-game losing streak.
"Every game is very important, especially with the way we're battling for position in the West," Hayward said. "That's why the games where you drop them, especially at home, those are killer. They're critical losses. Hopefully we don't have any more of those."
Derrick Favors had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and Joe Ingles had 12 points filling in for the injured Rodney Hood, as all five Jazz starters finished in double-digits.
"We've got a group of guys that have pride," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. "We all know we didn't have a good outing [against Minnesota] so it doesn't surprise me one bit."
Brooklyn was led by 18 points from backup forward Quincy Acy. Former Jazzman Trevor Booker scored eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench.
With the win, the Jazz improved to 38-24 on the season and moved 1.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers for fourth place in the Western Conference.
And they helped erase the memory of their worst performance of the season.
"When you play like some horse poop like I did last game, that's in the back of your head to do a lot better," said Hill, who had scored a season-low 3 points on Wednesday. "… My thing is just to go out there, have fun, play with a smile and everything will take care of itself."
Twitter: @aaronfalk —
Storylines
R George Hill scores a season-high 34 points on 10-of-12 shooting, as the Jazz bounce back from their worst loss of the season.
• Derrick Favors has 19 points and 12 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double.
• Utah snaps a two-game losing streak.