they didn't fight… but you know who would've won if they did

This morning I woke up, and gradually the memory of last night’s dreadful 96-71 loss to the Lakers drifted to the forefront of my mind. Initially, I reacted by asking myself if it was a dream. Or in this case, a nightmare. As I came to terms with the fact that it had actually happened, its reality did not shake from me the conviction that it was a nightmare. Because in a way, it was.

The Jazz have always been kind of boring. Small-market teams can get national coverage when they’re interesting. That’s why Ricky Rubio was such a great pick-up for Minnesota. At least they’re bad and interesting now (and I don’t mean Michael Beasley kind of interesting), and not just bad (see: Minnesota Wolves, 2010 season). Perhaps its because the Jazz have been so uncool, as Jackson noted in his first post, or because for over two decades, the Jazz have won with a methodical offensive system that thrived on the pick-and-roll. For whatever reason, the Jazz have been boring. This wasn’t really a problem, as long as the team was good. But this year, Jazz fans face the most nightmarish of possibilities: boring and bad.

Besides the madman Jeremy Evans’s momentary flash of athleticism, last night was boring. It was boring. It was hopeless. It was like watching your cousin’s middle school girls basketball game. 31 points at the end of the first half. 2-16 shooting for the player widely regarded to be the team’s best. Brick after clanging brick from C.J. Miles (what’s the over/under on ill-advised threes for CJ this season? 50? 70?). No one, not even Detroit fans, wants to watch their team fail to reach the 75 point mark. That’s boring. But to fail to reach that 75 point mark because your point guard walked the ball up the court every, single possession, only to set up your slow-footed, undersized center for an off-balance hook shot that badly missed? That’s painful, and last night I was pained.

I know this was only one game. And I know I shouldn’t judge a new coach with a young roster on such a small sample size. But that was boring, and that was bad, and I do not want to watch another game like that in my life. For the love of all that’s good about the NBA, can’t we watch a team that runs? That pushes the ball up the court at every opportunity? That throws outlet passes and pressures in transition? If this Jazz team has anything going for it, it is young legs. So run. Give up 110 points a game. Miss the playoffs by 5 games. I don’t care. The team is young. It needs to develop. It’s okay for a few playoff-less seasons. But please, don’t be bad and boring.

Maybe I’m rushing to conclusions. Or maybe, Jazz fans everywhere are about to live a nightmare.