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This time last year, Trey Burke got a lesson in how unfair the game can be. The point guard, then a rookie, was running a pick-and-roll with Enes Kanter in a preseason game against the Clippers. Burke threw a bounce pass and his finger smashed into Chris Paul.The thing fractured, and the rookie's season was put on hold for about a month.Fast forward to now.Burke is fully mended, a year older, and through three preseason games, emerging as a much improved floor general for this young Jazz team."The game's slowed down for me a lot," Burke said after tonight's 102-89 win over the Clippers. "I think I'm making the right decision, getting in the paint more, just trying to make plays for my team."Burke finished with team highs in points (16) and assists (8), and earned the praise of his coach."Every time he plays that way, it becomes more of who he is," Quin Snyder said. "That's what I would like to see continue to happen. … I think there's some pride in the fact that people have said he wants to score. Yeah. I'm glad he wants to score. But he also knows how to run the team. He's thinking about other people. When he's thinking about his teammates and how to make them better and how to win … that's what he does. He wants to win."Burkes shot well and particularly showed well in the pick-and-roll game with Derrick Favors. And Snyder lauded his decision making overall."He moved it and it came back to him," Snyder said. "That's the thing that I think he's got to trust."The coach did highlight one mistake, when Burke missed an open Rodney Hood."He knew. [He said] my bad," Snyder said. "It didn't happen that often that he missed people."• The Jazz are 3-0. The Clippers are 0-3.But it's the preseason, and Snyder isn't plotting a parade route just yet."They're just in a different place than we are," he said. "They're contending for an NBA championship and we're trying to grow and get better and play the right way. And I was proud of our guys. The win to me is just kind of a byproduct of what happened, of us playing well. And I'm really pleased with how we played, too. Don't get me wrong. But if it's a regular season game, it's a little harder. Let's not kid ourselves."• At one point in the first half, Jazz guard Ian Clark drew Snyder's ire for missing a defensive rotation."He rotated to the big who popped and he left his guy," Snyder said. "He knew. He needs to stunt and get back. He can't just do what he does. We've got to do what we do."In the post-game press conference, Snyder was quick to add that Clark has "been great" about that in practice.In the game, Snyder immediately subbed Clark out of the game, admonished, and then subbed him right back in.• The Jazz bigs continued to shoot 3s tonight.Trevor Booker, who has only ever made one in a regular season game, nailed two tonight. Booker perhaps had been a little coy with reporters in camp, when he said he'd only begun to work on his triple."He's really been working on it," Snyder said. "He's after practice every day, shooting 3s. I want him to shoot them from the corner. That's the shot I would like for him to hit. And tonight he had a few open from the top. And he's dangerous driving form up top, and if he can make a shot that helps too."Favors also took a 3. His from the corner. After the game, Favors said it was a play Snyder had drawn up for him."Coach drew up a play and just wanted to see me shoot one," he said. "Toward the end of the season, maybe next year, I'd add that to my offensive game."Kanter went 0-for-3 from distance.But he did something his coach would have liked on one of those attempts. The big man, a foot or so inside the arc, looked down at his feet and carefully stepped back before firing away."If we go back and look at the long 2s and it's a foot further out, why would you not?" Snyder said.• Dante Exum took some lumps tonight, going up against the Clippers All-Star point guard. The rookie committed eight turnovers. Twice Exum was baited into reaching for a ball only to have Paul swipe underneath and earn a foul.Said Snyder, "I can't imagine what it would have been like to play Chris Paul when I was 19, and I wasn't nearly as good a player as Dante Exum."• Rudy Gobert had 20 rebounds, which seemed to surprise his coach."Someone said that on the stat sheet and I don't know if 20 boards can be quiet," Snyder said. "I think a few of them were tips. Maybe he's padding his stats, tipping it to himself."The Jazz want the 7-footer to do two things this season above all others: roll hard to the basket and rebound.Mission accomplished tonight.— Aaron Falk