The Utah Jazz lost a huge game to the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night and now do not control their own destiny to get into the playoffs. If the Houston Rockets win their final game of the regular season they are in and the Jazz are out.
Utah was a team a lot of people had pegged as a playoff sleeper coming into the season. The Jazz have shown flashes of what their young team is capable of, but they haven't really been fully healthy all season. Alec Burks was a key missing piece for the majority of the year, and he is just making his way back onto the court.
Burks missed more than three months of action with a fractured ankle but finally returned late last week. Since coming back, the Jazz have eased Burks back into things as he hasn't played more than 14 minutes in any of the three games he has appeared in. The fifth-year man out of Colorado scored 11 points in his first game back but hasn't scored in either game since and didn't even take a shot on Monday against Dallas.
Not having Burks for the majority of the season really hurt Utah because he was one of the best bench scorers in the NBA before he got hurt. On the season the 24-year-old guard is averaging 13.3 points per game while making 41 percent of his three-point attempts; that is production the Jazz certainly could have used.
As for whether Burks will change the way he plays now that he has missed significant portions of the last two seasons with injuries, he says no chance.
"If I change my game, I feel like I change my future. So I don't want to change," Burks said. "I may change a little bit, pick and choose, but I've got to play fearless. That's how I play."
Burks may not be a well-known name around the league, but he is a young player that is on the rise. His toughness and his fearlessness have made him known around the league among players. Even Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade has heaped praise on him in the past saying that Burks is one of the toughest guys he goes against and that he is the most underrated player in the league.
Burks has proven that he is a very good scorer in the NBA; his issue has just been staying on the court. Assuming Burks plays the final game of the season for the Jazz, he will have only played in 59 games over two seasons. Still, Burks still plans to play as hard as he ever has because if he doesn't it's not worth it to him. Jazz fans will likely love to hear that Burks will still be fearless on the court, but they will hope he has better luck with staying healthy.
