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New York • Gordon Hayward is no superstar.

If he were, he might have been the beneficiary of a few more calls down the stretch of Friday night's game at Madison Square Garden. Maybe for one of the time's Carmelo Anthony, en route to 46 points, beat up on Hayward's body with his elbows in the post. Or maybe when Hayward, driving to the basket, got his right eye smacked by Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni.

"Man, I got hit," Hayward said with a slight shake of his head afterward. "I don't know how they didn't call that one."

But Hayward's star is certainly rising.

Through 10 games, he's easily been the Jazz's best player, making good more often than not on that new max contract. Friday night, all Hayward did was score 33 points, dish six assists, grab three rebounds and swipe four steals.

After the game, Jazz coach Quin Snyder and Hayward's teammates applaud his toughness going toe-to-toe with Anthony.

"They competed, man," said point guard Trey Burke, who hit the buzzer-beater to give the Jazz a 102-100 win. "Gordon, he's one of those players who's going to compete. He's playing as well as anybody in the league in my opinion. Melo threw a couple shots at him, but he never backed down."

Said Snyder, "Physically, he's really committed himself to getting stronger this summer. It shows in the way he's gone to the basket. He's taking contact. And tonight it showed defensively. That's just a really, really hard matchup."

The Jazz knew Anthony was going to get his points, though they would have liked to do a better job keeping him off the line. The superstar forward went 16-of-26 from the field and 13-of-16 from the stripe.

Still, Hayward showed moxie in his matchup.

"He's a competitor, man," he said of Anthony. "He's a scorer. I love playing against guys like that. It gets a little physical down there, but that's kind of the nature of who he is. He's hard to guard. We put multiple guys on him and it still doesn't seem like it works."

In the locker room, Hayward was already feeling the toll of the battle.

"It's sore," he said when asked how his body felt. "I'm sore. I was already kind of catching a cold. To have to fight him during that is exhausting, man. He's a hassle down there. He creates the contact so even if you're not really trying to, he's right there battling you."

Then he said, "The win makes everything worthwhile."

As for Hayward's eye?

The Knicks fortuitously called a timeout right after the play, giving him a chance to put in some drops and collect himself.

The star calls, meanwhile, will have to wait.

"It'll come," he said. "That's not something I can control. I'll try to be nice to the refs as much as I can."

— Aaron Falk