Alec Burks crosses up Kobe Bryant somethin’ fierce during Jazz preseason loss to Lakers (Video)
He’s not exactly a household name, but Utah Jazz guard Alec Burks established himself last season as one of the league’s most potent reserve scorers, a 6-foot-6 wing with a knack for getting to the rim. During Sunday’s preseason matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers, the 23-year-old Colorado product showed off his gift for making something happen with the ball in his hands — as a matter of fact, he made Kobe Bryant disappear:
Dang. Don’t reach, Regenokine-treated-blood.
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Yes, Kobe’s a surefire first-ballot Hall of Famer with a dozen All-Defensive Team selections on his impeccable résumé, but he’s also a 36-year-old with more than 54,000 NBA minutes under his belt who’s coming off two catastrophic left leg injuries in a nine-month span. It’d be unreasonable to expect him to have the same kind of quicks he had in his heyday; he’s going to have a tough time shuffling and sliding to keep up with players who only saw mini-fro Kobe on YouTube. That’s probably going to mean a lot of reaching and gambling on defense, which is wonderful when it works and … well, not so much when it doesn’t.
To be fair, the guards’ matchup wasn’t exactly one-sided. Burks’ shakedown came in response to Bryant dotting him for a long 3-pointer on the other end, and the Mamba had his fair share of moments on a night where he scored 26 points in 31 1/2 minutes to lead the Lakers to a 98-91 comeback win:
… but considering that L.A. went into halftime down 16 to a probably-not-going-to-be-that-great Jazz team when both squads’ starters were in the fray, and that the comeback came in a second half during which Utah played without starters Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors, some of those Sunday night heroics should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
Burks finished with a crisp 21 points on 14 shots in 29 minutes in his first game back from a shoulder injury, continuing to showcase the quickness and explosiveness that makes him one of the more intriguing candidates for an extension of his 2011 rookie contract prior to the Oct. 31 deadline and ringing up a highlight he’ll likely savor for a while.
“Alec attacks,” Hayward told Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune after the game. “He gets himself to the rim. He gets things going. … He’s just always a threat at all times.”
And if Kobe didn’t know that before, now he does.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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