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Los Angeles • A tight game. On the road. Against a Western Conference power.

A week earlier, the Jazz were able to pull out a big win in that situation. Last night against the Clippers, however, a young Utah team couldn't get it done.

There are dozens of variables of course, but it's hard to ignore one of the major differences between those two games: Alec Burks.

"I think what he's been able to do for us is he can get a shot," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said after Monday night's 101-97 loss at Staples Center. "You look at the Memphis game, and there are times in the game he's able to create and make a play."

The Jazz shooting guard, who scored a season-high 23 points in that win over the Grizzlies, has missed two straight games with a shoulder injury and his status is up in the air ahead of tonight's tilt with Minnesota. And while rookie Rodney Hood filled in admirably, he's not yet able to match what Burks (13.9 points per game) can provide offensively.

"He's a huge part of what we do," Gordon Hayward said of Burks. "He's somebody who can score and really gets into the paint. He's somebody that a defense has to focus on. It's tough not having him."

Burks' left shoulder will be something to monitor from now until the season ends. And with the way Burks plays and his history of shoulder issues, it's entirely plausible this is a scenario the Jazz will face again.

"We've just got to find that [offensive production] from more places, as long as he's not able to do that for us," Snyder said. "Other guys have to get more comfortable. Some of it is just getting familiar with what your team needs and us figuring out how to play without him."

The cost of missing freebies

We were in Southern California and it's fair to say that Derrick Favors looked fully bummed in the locker room after last night's loss.

In a four-point game, the center missed six of his nine free throws. He missed four of them in the fourth quarter alone.

"I don't know," he said. "Didn't want to hit them tonight. They was just coming off wrong."

As a team, the Jazz went 13 of 22 from the stripe for the game and 5 of 11 in the final quarter.

One to remember

A cool moment in defeat: Guard Patrick Christopher, who grew up in nearby Compton, got cheers from the roughly 40 friends and family members in attendance at Staples Center when he checked in early in the second quarter. The Jazz's free agent pickup from D-League Iowa soon grabbed a rebound and drove the length of the floor for a layup, his first NBA bucket.

Block party

The Jazz were whistled for 22 fouls to the 16 against the Clippers.

I'm not one to put too much fault on refereeing, but I thought in the third quarter, Hayward got hacked and it was ruled a clean block by Matt Barnes. Here's the video: http://on.nba.com/1Hf2mQ7

Funny thing, though.

The Clippers seemed to think Hayward was getting plenty of calls his way.

"[Blocks were] pretty big," Clippers center DeAndre Jordan said. "Matt had a couple huge ones during the game on Hayward, who really gets a lot of those fouls."

By the way, the Clippers recorded 12 blocks for the game and really caused some trouble for the Jazz in the paint down the stretch.

"They have a presence around the rim, no question," Snyder said. "For our guys, that's not something you play against every night. Clearly it bothered us in our ability to finish around the basket."

— Aaron Falk