Trey “Treyburkulosis” Burke has been one of the most bench-buried players in the league this season. He was, at the beginning of the season, getting some amount of backup PG minutes, maybe not as many as a player of his caliber (or at least draft pedigree) should have been getting, but some. Then the Wizards signed Brandon Jennings, and that was it. No more Burke. Ever. Since March, before tonight, he’d played a grand total of 14 minutes. It’s almost funny, except I kind of feel bad for him. It can’t be good on the ego to go from best college player to heinie-permanently-stapled-to-the-bench guy.
The last game of the season, as we all know, means chances for marginalized dudes to show their stuff. And boy, did Burke show his stuff. Stuff being three-pointers where he dribbles around for a while without even thinking about passing as well as a few long twos where he also did the look-off-everybody-on-the-team thing. Pretty much the antithesis of effective NBA basketball, but who cares? 27 points for him after not playing for a month is pretty insane.