Keyonte George Reacts to Controversial No-Call in Jazz-Lakers

At the end of the fourth quarter for the Utah Jazz's home matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers, they had come back from a 13-point deficit to bring the game within one possession, 106-108, and had five seconds to go on the clock to draw up a game-tying or game-sealing shot.

However, those efforts didn't wind up getting too far off the ground, as the Jazz's lost offensive possession of the game would lead to a sloppy inbounds play that led to third-year Keyonte George falling to the court, eventually getting the ball in the right corner for an off-balance three-pointer over Maxi Klever, and left Utah coming up empty-handed.

Last possession of the game, Keyonte George gets pushed to the ground by Marcus Smart trying to go around the screen

Lakers might have gotten away with one pic.twitter.com/wPousvNl1f
— Jazz Lead (@JazzLead) November 24, 2025

After the play, talk quickly surfaced of whether the no-call on the inbound play was warranted from the officials– a decision that, in the moment, head coach Will Hardy wasn't in agreement with.

But for George himself, he's not stuck on that final play of the game turning out poorly. Instead, the frustration lies within how Utah couldn't put the pieces together for a comeback earlier.

“Things like that, you got to let it go,” George said on the play post-game. “Obviously a little frustrated, we lost the game, but...I’m not mad at whatever the last play was or whatever it was. I’m more so mad at myself and our group for taking 24 minutes to pick it up.”

Keyonte George's Frustration Lingers Past Final Play

Rather than focusing on one possession that didn't play in their favor, George looks at the collective output to see lots of improvements to make moving forward.

Utah had a sluggish third quarter where they shot under 40% from the field, shot under 33% as a group from three throughout the night, and in the end, left them to rely on that last-second shot to push them over the edge.

"Just tried to go get the ball,” George said of the last-second play. “We ended up getting, not a great look, but at least we got a shot off."

"At the end of the day, you don’t want to put the game in the refs’ hands. There’s a lot of things in the first half that we could have controlled. And you see the second half, we made a push. So if we can put two halves together, we don’t put ourselves in that situation at all.”

Nov 23, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George (3) defends Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) during the second half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Rob Gray-Imagn Images | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

While the last play wasn't the end result he'd hoped, George made his presence felt throughout the night against a talented Lakers squad––posting a team-high 27 points paired with five rebounds and eight assists, continuing to show positive strides in his breakout third-year pro just one month deep into the season.

George will have a chance to rebound quickly on their back-to-back against the Golden State Warriors, and in turn, hopefully avoid their first four-game skid of the season.

Be sure to bookmark Utah Jazz On SI and follow @JazzOnSI on X to stay up-to-date on daily Utah Jazz news, interviews, breakdowns and more!