Getting Burkets starring Alec Burks:
Golden State Warriors visiting the Utah Jazz. 2 minutes left in the first quarter, Alec Burks entering the floor:
1st quarter
1.35 Alec Burks blows his PnR coverage vs Crawford. Totally sets himself into a screen, when Gobert sunk deep into the paint. Crawford misses an uncontested jumper going right with the right hand.
1.25 Burks runs PnR left wing with Gobert. Crawford follows over the screen(why?) and Speights plays passive, while Draymond rotates inside and gives up a wide open mid range for Evans. Solid execution.
2nd quarter
11.40 Burks uses a backscreen to catch the ball on the right wing. Klay Thompson follows over and Gobert arrives for a screen. Speights cuts off the baseline and Thompson's positioning directs him that way. Burks hits the cutting Gobert who goes to the free throw line.
11.15 Burks catches a crosscourt pass from Hayward and shoots it in rhythm with Thompson in his grill after he closed out. Nails it though.
10.05 He sinks in the 2.9 to deny a penetration from Barnes that was headed into Gobert anyways, getts off his feet, Barnes passes out to THompson(Burke's assignment) who hits a 3. Poor defense.
9.00 Burks comes in the corner and Draymond switches on him. He gives him space, he takes 1 dribble inside the arc and launches a long two. Hits it.
8.45 Burks defends the 2.9 at the border of the zone of the weak side. He focuses on the ball and Thompson moves to the corner, catches a pass from under the basket and nails the 3 with Burks too far away from the man closing out late due to his error. Barnes recognized Burks being distracted and signaled him to move to the corner. Real bad D.
8.25 Burks drives right wing towards the baseline and tries to drop it off to Gobert with a bounce pass waiting at the opposite border of the zone underneath. Can't control the ball, but good idea. Green helped and bothered Gobert.
7.35 Burks plays left wing PnR with Kanter. drives baseline under the basket. Green helps inside again for no reason and leaves Evans wide open.
7.00 Burks does right wing PnR with Kanter. THompson is slow, goes under. Bogut doesn't hedge out, Kanter screens the mid range pull up with his feet set by rolling to the basket. easy bucket.
6.30 Burks does right wing PnR with Kanter off the handoff, Thompson is late to deny the middle. Burks drives through the middle to the rim, no rotation from Bogut, but he can't make it off the glass. Good opportunity.
5.45 Right corner, Crawford takes away his left hand. Burks drives right along the baseline, late rotation, bucket and a foul. Multiple reviews don't reveal if he traveled by changing his pivot foot on the crossover. I'm pretty sure it was travelling. He lifted his pivot before he dribbled the ball while crossing over. But I'm sometimes confused over the rules in all the leagues.
5.05 Defensive possession: Burks no longer plays 2.9 against Thompson. Guards him closer. He can't create anything with it. Better D.
3.40 Thompson offers Burks the baseline again. This time Bogut is too far away, so Burks uses Kanter's screen to drive to the middle. He hesitates, then goes to the rack but is rejected by Bogut.
1.20 Burks got stuck defending a curl of Thompson. Kanter didn't help, giving Thompson an easy drive to the basket, which Burks could only stop by committing a foul.
3rd quarter
11.30 Burks hits the curling Burke with a sweet bounce pass to set up his drive.
10.30 Burks hit the cutting Kanter on a nice give and go after his defender came over to double Burks.
8.00 Burks getts the ball at the top of the key. Drives left to the basket, Thompson contests the drive, light bump and Burks draws the ***** foul. 2 shots.
7.30 After failed Kanter postup on Bogut, he gives the ball to Burks who runs to his corner from the arc. Then screens off Iggy, Bogut doesn't close out he hits a baseline J.
5.50 Burks follows Thompson over a screen. He's way too slow, not in defensive stance. Getts lucky that THompson throws it away as he ran into Kanter.
4.45 Burks catches a baseline pass in the corner, but steps out of bounds when he wanted to accelerate his drive on Iggy by putting his foot behind him.
4.35 Burks corralls a rebound against Bogut, drives from coast to coast and draws the foul as his defender stood in the restricted area. 2 shots.
2.50 Burks uses a double screen to free himself up from Curry, drives to the hoop and Euro Steps on Bogut. Bucket. Strong play.
0.50 Burks doesn't realize he has to help on a drive by Green, after Adonis Thomas couldn't close out and he got caught in Gobert after failing to follow his man. Then he blocked Gobert from helping. Weak defensive awareness.
0.40 Right wing, Burks uses a right wing screen to lose his defender. Then switches the hand to drive inside. At the rim he fakes the shot, 2 defender jump, and he flips it in with his back to the basket. Tough shot to avoid the airborne defenders.
4th quarter:
7.15 They try to trap Burks again by letting him drive to the baseline. He nearly loses control, but finds Thomas who bricks a wide open jumper.
3.25 Thompson makes Burks drive towards the baseline once again. Burks eurosteps on Bogut again in the paint and getts the and one with a lefty layup.
2.25 Burke leads the fastbreak, drops it off to the cutting Burks, who twists his body to position himself with his back to the basket in the air, pump fakes in the air and lays it in. Tough shot.
1.25 Burks is defender closer by Green, getts the screen on the left wing, uses it towards the middle, takes 1 dribble, and takes the long 2. Green went under the screen, but came back up to contest his slow release. Missed the shot.
Summary: Burks defender mostly below average due to bad court awareness, but had a couple okay possessions. Mostly he was far away from the ball on the weak side.
Offensively he took a lot of very long 2s. Most of them were off the dribble without his feet set. Went in surprisingly well in contrast to his performance all season long. He operated a lot from the left wing, where he was relatively unsuccessful so far this season. Not so on this night. He had some good passes when the team tried to trap him in the corner on the ball screens. He found the cutter surprisingly well. Throughout the game GS didn't respect his long range shooting as his defender were mostly going under screens and if not that allowed him some drives. The big man help on the PnR to contain penetration was really bad from GS against him. Allowed him to set up his really really good euro step. You can see how crafty he is in that move. Under the basket he shies away from contact a little too much, turns and twists his body and has these tough back to the basket flings over his head. They don't seem to be sustainable moves. He should opt for contact more if the opponent wants to foul him.
Tomorrow I'll analyze some game where his mid range shot didn't go in. I suspect in that case he's more turnover prone and doesn't have the passing lanes.
He was better than I expected. Rarely overlooked the better positioned guy which was something I noticed in the past about his drives.