College Basketball

George Hill, Utah Jazz Steal Win From Minnesota Timberwolves

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 1:53 p.m. ET

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Fansided, Ryan Aston/FanSided via Purple and Blues

Utah Jazz point guard George Hill returned to the fray and helped lead his team to a comeback win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

In Saturday’s showdown with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Utah Jazz managed to do something for the first time since the 2014-15 season.

They actually entered the game with a full complement of healthy (ish) players.

Starting point guard George Hill, who mas missed the majority of the season with a variety of ailments, was finally back in uniform to face Karl-Anthony Towns and the T-Wolves. Hill was the last domino to fall following the recent returns of Alec Burks, Dante Exum and Derrick Favors.

What resulted was another rarity in Jazzland these days — a comeback victory. Despite trailing by as many as 13 points in the second half, the Jazz had one of their better finishes of the season to claw their way back into the game and steal a 94-92 win.

The pivotal stretch came in the game’s final moments. After a free throw from Towns gave Minny a 92-83 advantage with 3:35 remaining, Favors and Hill kicked it into high gear, pacing the team during an 11-0 run to take the lead and the game.

Favors was particularly strong, scoring seven of those 11 points. None were bigger than the three that came at the 1:29 mark, which made it a one possession game —

On the whole, the Jazz outscored the Timberwolves 25-12 in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, Favors scored 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting and added six rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots for the night.

It was his best game since returning to the court in Mid-December and one of his better efforts of the season.

Nevertheless, the big story was Hill, who seems to have not missed a beat since getting knocked out of competition by an Alex Len elbow on New Year’s Eve. He finished with a team-high 19 points to go along with seven assists and five rebounds.

The biggest number from Hill, however, was 10 — i.e. the number of points the Jazz were able to outscore the Wolves by when he was on the floor. Hopefully he and the rest of the Jazz band can remain there for the rest of the season.

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Minnesota was led by 24 points from Zach LaVine and 18 from Towns. Gordon Hayward added 16 and Rudy Gobert finished with 12 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Hill, Favors and the Jazz (23-15) will be back in action on Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies (23-16).

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