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SALT LAKE CITY — When the Utah Jazz drafted Trey Burke this summer, it rounded out their roster, giving them a young player at all five positions. Fans wanted to see it happen, and Saturday night the young line closed the game together.
The lineup of Burke, Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward, Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors played a total of 19 minutes together in the first 43 games combined. Injuries, learning curves and matchup problems forced coach Tyrone Corbin to shuffle lineups early in the season. In its 104-101 victory over the Washington Wizards, the young core played 13 minutes and closed out both halves.
Against the Wizards, the Jazz had a perfect storm to finally allow the young five to play extended minutes together. The Wizards had two big men in their frontcourt, Marcin Gortat and Nene Hilario, which allowed Kanter and Favors to play side by side. Burks heated up, Hayward was back, and Burke played solid as usual.
This lineup played in a total of five games before Saturday night, averaging about four minutes per appearance. Between early inconsistencies from Burks and Kanter to injuries to Burke, Hayward and Favors, this lineup has had trouble getting off the ground, but it might start to get more time going forward.
“We were hurt earlier this season, but I think the experience of the year allows us to grow into it,” Corbin said. “It's one of the things we want to make sure we maximize the moments that we have while we are trying to be as good as we can now to give them experience. So close games like this, situations like these at the end of the game, there's nothing like the game experience, and fortunate for us we were able to get a win. We made a couple mistakes, we turned the ball over there, but we were able to weather the storm and close the game.”
It was a lot about weathering the storm against the Wizards. While the different variations of the lineup produced great results, the exact line was the worst in scoring differential on the night, -9 overall.
The silver lining of this is that almost all of this deficit came in a two-minute span. The Wizards gained six points in the first minute the five were together in the first quarter, and four points in a minute as they all returned in the fourth.
It wasn't pretty, but they got the job done when the clock struck zero. Kanter was one point away from tying his career high, ending with 24 points, and all the young core scored in double figures. Favors ended the night with another double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
Burks had another very efficient night, scoring 15 points on nine shots. Burke shot well from the outside to go with eight assists, and Hayward had a very workmanlike 16 points, six rebounds and four assists.
The players are finding their roles and performing them well. Before the season, people expected Kanter and Burks to become offensive forces, Burke would be the facilitator, Favors the defense and Hayward would fill in the gaps on everything else. That's what happened Saturday night.
“We had two bad games, and I personally had two bad games against Minnesota,” Kanter said. “Tonight we had to come out with lots of energy. My coach gave me lots of confidence, and we've been practicing really hard.”
Kanter and Burks came off the bench to join the other three starters to get more than 30 minutes in the game. The trio of starters, Burke, Hayward and Favors, had at least 34 minutes. These number are all a step up over their season averages.
Corbin had used his starters, Marvin Williams and Richard Jefferson, more often in the past. They only had 17 minutes each by starting each of the halves, but not coming back in after they were subbed out, except the last minute, when Jefferson was subbed in to guard 3-point shooters.
This lineup might not get 15 minutes every night from this point forward, but it has to be a good sign for Jazz management. As the season goes along, this line will probably get the opportunity to show what it can do, and as the trade deadline approaches, this could be a chance to show that the young players can shoulder the load for the future.
