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The Triple Team: Jazz go to 3-0 in the preseason, but Keyonte George suffers knee injury

Three thoughts on the Utah Jazz’s 107-102 win over the Dallas Mavericks from Salt Lake Tribune Jazz beat writer Andy Larsen.

1. 3-0 in the preseason

Results don’t matter in the preseason, everyone knows that. The Mavs — winners of the Western Conference last year — sat Luka Doncic for the whole game, and Klay Thompson for the second half. This result does not really indicate anything about how the Jazz will perform during the season.

But as I watched Thursday’s win against the Mavs, I kept thinking about something Rockets coach Ime Udoka said on Monday about Will Hardy. You’ll remember that Udoka knows Hardy well, having Hardy as his lead assistant in Boston and Hardy even coaching Udoka as a player in San Antonio.

“He is overachieving with some of the things he has. And for a guy like him, he’s not going to try to tank, try to lose,” Udoka said. “He’s a guy that’s gonna put his best foot forward and get guys to play the right way and play hard for him. And so you can see that with their team.”

I thought the Jazz played pretty hard for a preseason game on Thursday. They gathered 15 offensive rebounds, and the starters played 26 minutes or more. I don’t know that it was a particularly well-played game, but they scrambled, found Lauri Markkanen often, and made a good percentage of threes.

Sure, opponents will likely play their best players in the regular season — but playing hard and making threes is a combination that can win you a surprising amount of games in today’s NBA. Maybe not enough to make the playoffs, but enough to avoid those top-4 odds in the lottery? Perhaps.

If you’re a tank-preferring fan, though, the good news is that it does seem like sitting Markkanen would be again enough to push them below water, if they chose to go that way. He was a +15 tonight, meaning the Jazz were a -10 in the 18 minutes he didn’t play.

2. Keyonte George’s knee injury

Early in the third period, Keyonte George slipped in the middle of the Mavericks’ floor as he tried to bring the ball up the floor against pressure, and came away limping. At first, it was a bit unclear what he hurt, but a quick update from the Jazz found that George had suffered a “mild knee sprain” on his left knee.

To be sure, “mild” is the key, very good word there. A whole lot of the point of this season is to find out exactly what Keyonte George is after a summer of development. Is he a point guard? A shooting guard? Can he run an offense? Can he defend? Can he not just take a lot of threes, but make them at an above-average clip too? We hope to find all of that out this year, and the answers will really help the Jazz make the right acquisitions next offseason.

Even a mild knee sprain deserves caution, though. Though we don’t know for sure, given the limp off the court, I’d expect George to miss some time with the injury. Collin Sexton is the obvious starting point guard replacement, leaving the 2-guard spot unfilled.

Personally, I’d choose Brice Sensabaugh to fill in for that role, leaving Isaiah Collier (seven assists again tonight) and Jordan Clarkson as the backup guards in the second unit. Starting Clarkson or even Johnny Juzang could work too, though.

3. Greg Ostertag’s appearance on the broadcast

Greg Ostertag joined Craig Bolerjack and Thurl Bailey on the Jazz’s TV broadcast tonight, and his appearance was a delight. I thought it was notable that the broadcast team skipped over the usual “remember the Finals days” content that’s done with old players, instead, they just asked Ostertag about what he was up to now.

Ostertag doesn’t watch basketball much now, he admitted. Instead, he’s mostly keeping up with his farm — which, as he told Boler and Big T, has two camels. One’s single-humped, one’s double-humped, and the single-humped one is friendlier and a bit longer too. (Ostertag was asked if he rides the camels, which he does not.) He said he used to have a zebra, but that animal “got a colic and died.”

Here’s the great thing: all of that information is available to followers of Ostertag on social media. His Instagram page, @otag00, has a whopping 1,663 followers. His TikTok — and yes, it’s remarkable Greg Ostertag is on Tiktok, has a measly 578 followers at @gregostertag1.

There, you’ll find mostly various enjoyable farm-life content: Ostertag riding with sheep in the back of his truck, Ostertag catching an armadillo, and so on. You’ll hear him give well wishes to the memory of the recently departed Dikembe Mutombo.

But you will also see Ostertag winning first place in a Dolly Parton lookalike contest.

This man is a treasure, and I’m glad we get to keep up with even just a few snippets of his day to day life.

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