I hate to do this so early in the season, but it’s necessary. Last night’s game/season opener against the Nuggets in Denver was frustrating at best and disenfranchising at worst. I’m not saying that I am giving up on the Jazz, but, to put it frankly, the Jazz showed zero heart in the fourth quarter last night, and it really was disgusting. Deron Williams and Memo Okur get a pass, but everyone else needs to run their guts out today in practice.

I know, I know…a lot of you are probably saying “look, it was only the first game of the season, and Denver is really good. You should give them a break”. My answer to that is absolutely not, because professional athletes never should get a break when it comes to effort, and the Jazz showed about as much effort as a bunch of twelve year old girls that were forced to play basketball against each other in seventh grade P.E. last night (and that’s not an exaggeration).

Let’s recap:

Quarter 1: Memo goes down. My initial thought is that he has torn his ACL, ruptured his akiles, or had a heart attack. With the luck this team has had with injuries, I tend to automatically think the worst when these things happen these days. Fes stepped in and had a decent run and a nice dunk. All around the team looks pretty good, except where’s Boozer?

Quarter 2: Deron Williams makes me happy. Jazz are in control and shooting a fairly good percentage. Offense looks a little disjointed, but hey, it’s the first game of the season. Anyone seen Carlos Boozer?

Quarter 3: Deron Williams makes me even more happy. Honestly this year he might make the leap to serious top-five MVP contender status. He’s that good. Good all around quarter, except for a little shaky at the very end. Jazz still look like they are in control. Wait, Carlos Boozer still plays for the Jazz right?

Quarter 4: Deron Williams sits down for two minutes, and a nuclear holocaust takes place on the floor, led by Eric Maynor. Question, why was Ronnie Price not running the offense at the start of the fourth? Didn’t we already go through this? I don’t care if The Jazz needed him to help out on the wing because of the early injuries…Jerry doesn’t play rookies in situations like that, so why all of the sudden did he decide to play Maynor? This quarter made me sick. No hustle, bad defense, and horrible offense. Bad passing caused Millsap to get posterized (seriously Paul, when you do something like that, bear-hug the guy. What was that? Were you trying to give him a three-point play?), and the Jazz let Ty Lawson remind us all of how week our interior defense really is. Oh, and by the way, Boozer never showed up.

The Jazz deserved to get beat last night because they gave up, plain and simple. Their effort was non-existent, and I really don’t give a $%&# if they win at home on Friday night. I don’t care if they win at home all season, because this team will not be in serious contention talk until they learn to man up on the road. Shots don’t always fall, and you’re not going to get every call away from SLC, but that has nothing to do with how much heart you play with. It has nothing to do with how hard you run, how good your defense is, and how focused you are.

Honestly, if the Jazz were an amateur team, they would be running sprints, ladders, and D-drills until they puked today. Then they would watch film until they puked again. I hope Jerry isn’t getting soft in his old age, because that effort in the fourth last night was not worthy of pro athletes.

So as of right now, the Jazz are 0-1, and they wont have a chance to even it up until they play Dallas in Dallas next Tuesday on the second half of a back-to-back. Again, home games don’t count this year for me, because I know they will show up and act like they care when they have their home crowd behind them. It’s not about wins or losses, it’s about actually wanting to win so bad that you try, and the Jazz seem to really want it in SLC.

Seriously Jazz, no excuses this year. I would rather watch a team lay their guts out on the floor every night and not make the playoffs than a team that makes the playoffs because they are talented, but doesn’t act like they really want it on a regular basis.

Comments (8)

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written by Spelling Police, October 29, 2009

Latters. Ha.

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written by Justin77, October 29, 2009

Sadly I didn't watch the whole game. I saw them doing well into the 3rd and thought we might have chance. Sad to see they self destructed in the end. However I am still willing to give them a chance. The cavs dropped their first two and they were red hot last year. If they don't start performing soon however it will be game over.

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here we go again
written by Tyrantking, October 29, 2009

And I foolishly thought that this year would be different, that the Jazz could maintain their intensity for ONE game. Here were my thoughts:

Speaking of Maynor, you know who else is a rookie? Lawson. He just embarrassed us last night.

If you're going to foul, foul hard. Millsap deserved to be posterized.

Taking turns launching three pointers is not an offense.

If you won't do the simple things like BOXING OUT for defensive rebounds, you aren't going to win.

I hate Denver.

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written by Huh?, October 29, 2009

Spelling Police says what?

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written by Spelling Police, October 30, 2009

The Agreement had edit power, but everyone knows you spelled Ladders "latters". Good times.

Not sure if you guys caught that Nuggets game tonight, but that was called a road win. You should learn about those.

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written by TheAgreement, October 30, 2009

I'm not sure what "Spelling Police" is talking about...maybe he's just a small town cop...you know the kind that run around looking for anything they can to bring meaning to their otherwise boring life. At any rate, he clearly made a mistake, because I would never spell a word that I use nearly every day like "ladders" wrong and then change it to make him look bad. For one, anyone with the name "Spelling Police" has never made a mistake in their lives, and surely if someone were to make it look like they had made a mistake, when they clearly did not, it might ruin their whole sense of meaning in life.

Thanks for reminding me of why I despise elitism so bad "Spelling Police"...O, and how many winning seasons do the Nuggets have under their belt now in franchise history? You probably shouldn't question our ability to win on the road-talk about the pot calling the kettle black And before you get your panties in a wad again, this comment is totally not serious at all. I'm mostly just bored, just like you.

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