George Hill hit the true game-winner for Utah

The quiet, stoic players in the NBA might not be as exciting as the boisterous, emotional ones, but they are certainly just as dangerous. George Hill is near the top of the list when it comes to being stoic and dangerous simultaneously.

Hill and the Utah Jazz — the Spurs West — were a match made in heaven and general manager Dennis Lindsey traded a 2016 lottery pick (Taurean Prince) to acquire him this past summer. The Jazz are stacked with young, budding talent so another lottery pick was unlikely to garner real minutes and help this team get over the hump, so getting a wily veteran like Hill was the move. The same day the Jazz traded for Hill, they also acquired Boris Diaw in a trade and then the following day signed Joe Johnson in a move that surprised everyone.

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All three of their offseason acquisitions were pivotal to the game one success, and eventual win for Utah. The veteran trio notched a combined 91 minutes while young, inexperienced players at their same positions (Dante Exum, Alec Burks and Trey Lyles) earned DNP-CDs. Those guys are going to be key players for the Jazz in years to come, but the Jazz brass knew they needed experience for the playoff run and the older trio stepped it up when it counted.

Early in the fourth quarter the Jazz were holding onto an 89-84 lead with 9:23 left to play. This play could have been a disaster as Diaw inexplicably swung a pass to Hill with less than one second on the shot clock, but what ensued after was nothing short of stunning.

Hill completes a very literal catch-and-shoot bank 3 which would put the Jazz up eight with about nine minutes to go in the game.

George Hill is no stranger to circus shots as you can view here, here and here but all of those came while donning an Indiana Pacers uniform, so in essence everything leading up to this shot was a probationary period and now he’s been initiated into Jazz lore.

Now, watch the video one more time, but this time watch the bench. Those young guys who did not play a single minute were the most hype, while veteran Joe Johnson simply raised his hand in solidarity as if to say, “Okay, I see you George and I got somethin’ for you later…”. And yes if you were wondering, I am a specialist in reading body language, especially in the field of hand-raising after a big shot.

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True to his foreshadowing hand-raise, Joe Johnson put his ISO-Joe cape on and hit the floater which ultimately won the game for the Jazz, but they never would have had the chance if not for Hill’s ridiculous alley-oop 3-pointer. After the game Hill credited Joe Ingles for “always throwing bad passes in practice” so clearly Diaw and Ingles have been planning this ruse for quite some time.

Little did they know, George Hill has shot-making in his DNA and like a true stoic villain, he thwarted their evil plan and triggered something in Joe Johnson which led to this epic game one victory. All hail Mr. Hill.