The Utah Jazz, the basketball team with the highest expectations this side of the late great Barcelona Olympics, suffered another setback in their quest for perfection Sunday afternoon when the Portland Trail Blazers came from behind for their 124-113 nationally televised win in the Delta Center.
The fact that the Blazers, who extended their winning streak to five straight and increased their third-best-in-the-NBA road record to 10-7, may be the NBA's hottest team this January was of no matter. The loss was nonetheless met with this season's usual displays of Profound Concern:- With two minutes to play and the outcome still in doubt, hundreds of Jazz fans rushed to the Delta Center exits, shaking their heads and getting a jump on the mourning.
- The subsequent evening (and morning) sports talk shows centered on the Theme of the Month: What's wrong with the Jazz?
- And local sales of Maalox and Mylanta continued to rise.
When Jazz coach Jerry Sloan expressed concern about a "lack of intensity" after the game, he was obviously not referring to the atmosphere surrounding the Jazz this season.
With two gold medal-winning Dream Team members in Karl Malone and John Stockton and a rate of NBA ascendency the past few seasons that shows a steady climb to elite level, the Jazz aren't expected to be perfect on their way to a championship showdown this June with Michael and the Bulls - but they're expected to come close.
You can feel it in the crowd's mood in the Delta Center; you can sense it from the first strains of the National Anthem - get the song over with and let's play ball. On the road, where the Jazz are winning at a better rate this season than anytime in their history, it comes across on call-in shows and in bits and pieces of conversations heard all around town. Why aren't they winning them all?
In general, Jazz fans seem to have turned into the Felix Ungers of the NBA. They lead the league in fret. Welcome to Uptight City. Are there 19,911 psychiatrists in the house?
You could make a fortune selling worry beads next to the pizza stands. Less people per capita worry about the Rain Forests. Going to the Delta Center is like going to a caffeine-tasting convention. It's about as laidback as a South American election.
The season isn't even to its halfway point and already nerves are frayed. Yesterday's game didn't help. How can you make it to the finals if you can't make it past Portland? Now there's something to really worry about.
There are probably very good - even rational - reasons for the current nerve-wracking state of affairs. One is that the Jazz aren't getting any younger. If Stockton and Malone are to take the franchise to the next notch they can't wait forever. Another is that prosperity has created something of a progressive monster. After you've A) Made the playoffs, B) Won the division, C) Made it to the second round, D) Made it to the conference final, E) Sent two members of your team to the Olympics, and F) Been given the opulence of the Delta Center to bask in all of the above - well, who wants to go backwards?
Add into that thinking the Trail Blazers and the morgue-like atmosphere after yesterday's defeat is easily explained. Those were the Cry Blazers themselves, the most despised team in Utah. The team that whined its way to last year's conference title.
The loss was tough to take . . . home.
Whether all this urgency and scrutiny is being translated to the team itself is hard to gauge, although there are some signs that seem to suggest it is. A week ago Sloan had emergency talks with every member of his team after reports of some incompatability problems on the court.
This, from a team that's 25-13 record is still two games better than at this stage a year ago - after which the team went on to post a franchise record-tying 55 wins.
And this, from a coach whose usual idea of a heart-to-heart talk is a glare.
And, too, there's the sobering stat that the Jazz are 14-5 at home, meaning that they've already lost more games in Salt Lake City this season than all of last season.
Not that there's anything wrong with a 14-5 home record. But that's the point. If the Jazz aren't expected to win them all, they're at least expected to win the ones against Portland. That's what was obvious yesterday. There's a championship to be won. And there's no time to waste.