Utah Jazz at Indiana Pacers: Keys to the Game

Key Match-up – George Hill and Jeff Teague

In the first meeting between the Pacers and Jazz this season, George Hill was absolutely phenomenal as he lit up his former team for 30 points on 9-of-16 shooting in what was one of his best games of the season.

Though he vehemently denied that his performance had anything to do with the fact that he was facing off against Indiana (the team he had previously stated was the one he was supposed to retire with), he certainly looked as if he had a major chip on his shoulder and was playing with something to prove.

The Jazz will likely need a similar outing from Hill and hopefully he’ll be able to muster it against Indy’s starting point guard Jeff Teague, who ironically is the player that the Pacers traded for in the deal that sent Hill to Utah.

Given that Hill likely feels that Indiana viewed Teague as a more capable replacement, it would come as no surprise that he’d be extra motivated to outshine his Pacers counterpart at the point guard position.

And though Hill certainly did just that in the two teams’ previous meeting and overall on the season has been much more effective than Teague, the former Hawks All-Star most definitely should not be overlooked. At 15 points and nearly eight assists per game, Teague has most certainly been effective with the Pacers and can be a dangerous threat as both a scorer and facilitator.

Nevertheless, much like the Pacers as a whole have had an up-and-down season, Teague’s 2016-17 campaign perfectly matches up with that as well. He started out the season struggling mightily to find his shot, but seemed to be getting things turned around near midseason.

However, of late he’s started to falter once more as since the All-Star break, Teague is averaging just 13 points on 37.3 percent shooting from the field and 34.2 percent from deep to go along with 6.9 assists. In each of those areas, Teague is significantly down from him season average.

Therefore, George Hill and the Jazz will need to take advantage of Teague’s disappointing recent play and hold him in check. There’s no doubting that both he and Hill will want to prove that their respective team made the better decision in acquiring them, so the result of the individual battle between these two could very well decide the game’s final outcome.