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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz trotted out their starting lineup of the future to give the fans a taste, but it was short-lived and the five will have to wait to show more.
Trey Burke, Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter finally had their chance to shine for the Utah Jazz Saturday when they played host to the L.A. Clippers. The lineup that has so many fans excited lasted for less than six minutes and might not happen again for a while.
Favors got his second foul with 6:24 left in the first quarter and sat the rest of the quarter. The five didn't play another minute together as the Jazz fell with a thud 106-74 to the Clippers.
“It didn't last long,” head coach Tyrone Corbin said.
It wasn't Favors' fault entirely, the biggest blow came when Burke threw a pass and on the follow through hit the hand of a Clippers' player. Burke left the game to get it taped, came back for a few plays, but ultimately couldn't take the pain.
Burke fractured his right index finger.
“I felt like I could get back out there and play, but it was just too tough for me to dribble the ball and pass it,” Burke said.
Burke was the missing piece for the Jazz in the offseason. Every position except the point-guard spot has a young player in place. The Jazz went up to get Burke and it seemed like a perfect match.
“It's a significant blow for us,” Corbin said. “It's unfortunate to get the news that it is a fracture. We'll see what the specialists say once they look at it, but it's a downer for us.”
The injury isn't expected to be long-term. According to the Jazz public relations office Burke will see a hand specialist Monday and they will decide a timetable then.
Even with Burke and the young starters the game wasn't going very well. The Clippers are a very good team and might be the favorites to win the Western Conference. The visiting Clippers easily won starters vs. starters.
Utah's young starting five combined for 29 points while giving up 47 to the Clippers' starters. The Jazz couldn't get anything to fall. The team shot 36 percent overall, but the starters went 12-42 (28.5 percent).
“We weren't playing our best basketball, but I wanted to see (the starters) against their group,” Corbin said. “This is a good team we are playing against and that's why I wanted to see it against these guys. Right from the beginning of the game there are some good things that we can learn.”
The Jazz were playing the second night in a row against a good team. There are a lot of excuses that could be made — some of them very legitimate — but the players still need to play better.
The two big men, Kanter and Favors, only scored six points and had 11 rebounds between them in 39 minutes of play. Kanter made no allusions to how he played and said it very bluntly.
“In one word: bad,” Kanter said.
Kanter didn't play for six months after his shoulder injury last year, but blamed most of it on his focus and not getting his team involved in the game.
Favors had a little more rosy outlook, especially towards the lineup.
“It went good, but like I said everything is a learning experience right now,” Favors said. “We just got to build some team chemistry and learn how to play with each other and we'll be fine.”
It is still preseason and the tinkering will continue. This particular starting five might not start as a unit for another month or maybe even longer, depending on Corbin's starting choices.
They will have time to play together even if it isn't starting games. Time is the most important ingredient for a group of kids looking to grow up together. However, with the injury to Burke that start to that time is on hold.
