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Even if all the Jazz were hoping to accomplish Wednesday night was to illustrate Paul Millsap's value in his absence, they messed that up, too.
They may have missed Millsap's inside presence offensively in the first half, but their outside coverage defensively in the second half was so lousy that there's no way he could have saved them a 110-87 loss to Atlanta. The overall effort ranked as undoubtedly the Jazz's worst showing of the season at EnergySolutions Arena — even amid a surprising amount of competition.
Sorry to say, these guys just cannot be taken seriously after this debacle, especially when they haven't beaten anybody that's any good lately.
Millsap's rare night out of uniform with a hip injury is certainly not enough of a disclaimer.
"That definitely hurts," said Jazz guard Deron Williams, "but we've had guys injured in the past, and it's not an excuse to come out and get beat by [23] on your home floor."
So what's with this team? Good question. Just when the Jazz are positioned to take control of the Northwest Division race and make a move in the Western Conference standings, they regress. They're only 13-7 at home, where the franchise formerly was dominant.
This game was another reminder of how the only reason the Jazz have a decent record (24-12) is their series of unlikely rallies earlier in the season. A rally from 11 points down with a big fourth quarter at Atlanta was part of their epic November trip. As we know now, such comebacks only created a misleading impression.
If Millsap's absence was a chance for reserves Francisco Elson and Kyrylo Fesenko to play more, they sure failed to take advantage of it. In 31-plus minutes, the two big men totaled three points and two rebounds.
The Jazz obviously are better with Millsap, and they will improve if Mehmet Okur ever overcomes his series of injuries. But here's the thing: A genuinely good team would have found a way to beat Atlanta, even without those guys. The Hawks (24-14) are very talented, but they played the previous night in Sacramento, and visiting teams never used to be able to pull off a back-to-back effort like this against the Jazz.
Atlanta played with a "continuity that we don't have," according to Williams, who also said that against good teams, "We don't have any chemistry, or … I don't know what you call it, but we don't have it."
Each team's disadvantages should have evened out, which is why I viewed this as a checkpoint game for the Jazz, a chance to re-establish themselves at ESA and prove something against a quality opponent. Instead, it was pretty much a no-show, except for one great hustle play and one nice shooting flurry.
The only redeeming moment of the opening half came when rookie Gordon Hayward scrambled back to block Jamal Crawford's breakaway layup, with the Jazz trailing by 14 points. Hayward followed with a jump shot on the Jazz's next possession, but his effort was not contagious.
Andrei Kirilenko scored 12 points in the third quarter and helped the Jazz produce 10 points in three possessions, which is hard to do.
Yet their net gain was minimal because the Hawks were firing in 3-pointers of their own. Kirilenko's summary of the period: "I was feeling like, 'Wow, we scored, like, 20 points in a row.' Then I'm looking at the board and it's like, still 15 points [behind]."
And it only got worse.