By Brian T. Smith

| The Salt Lake Tribune

It took 28 games for the Jazz to return to reality.

During a frustrating 1-3 start to the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, a mix-and-match team featuring four returning starters and four players 21 or younger underperformed and underwhelmed. Then Utah surprised the NBA, winning eight of nine and improving to 9-4, leaving players to say the league could no longer overlook a team that won games with a fiery attack, and creating a fervor at EnergySolutions Arena not seen since Deron Williams was in uniform.

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At a glance

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Falling down

After starting 9-4, the Jazz have lost 10 of 15 to even out at 14-14. Utah entered Wednesday ranked fourth in the Northwest Division and 10th in the Western Conference. The ninth through 13th teams in the conference are separated by just 3 games.

Reserves vs. starters

Jazz’s last two games

Second unit

Position Player minutes

PG Earl Watson 57

SG Alec Burks 33

PF Derrick Favors 44

C Enes Kanter 42

First unit

PG Devin Harris 34

SG Raja Bell 46

PF Paul Millsap 46

C Al Jefferson 54

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But six weeks after facing their first hurdle of the season — a road blowout to San Antonio on Dec. 31 that left coach Tyrone Corbin challenging his team — Utah has again returned to average.

Following a 1-2 run on a back-to-back-to-back away series, the Jazz are 14-14, losers of seven of nine and 10 of 15. And Utah again has more in common with lower-rung Western Conference teams such as Golden State and Minnesota than annual winners Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

With the Jazz starting just 1-5 during a two-month road test that will see the team play 22 of 34 games away from ESA, players aren’t content with the calm, big-picture approach Corbin stuck to Tuesday after watching the Thunder blow out his team by 26. Raja Bell said a Jazz squad without an elected captain still doesn’t have an identity. Devin Harris suggested Utah return to the drawing board six games away from the midway mark of the season. And the normally even-keeled Paul Millsap was an open book, saying the Jazz have obvious problems but no one has determined what they actually are — let alone how to fix them.

To veteran point guard Earl Watson, Utah’s fall toward .500 has given a team that constantly talks about making the playoffs a "reality dosage of NBA basketball." He said the Jazz must reseal their foundation and take their performance to another level. If not, letdowns such as an almost unexplainable road defeat Monday to 5-23 New Orleans will continue to occur, while Utah won’t have a chance to survive even if it enters the postseason, since the team won’t be able to win away from Salt Lake City.

"We built a nice cushion. But now we’re right back to where it is a sense of urgency. I don’t believe in never panicking, but I also believe in playing with a sense of urgency. Everyone has to enhance everything they do," said Watson, who played more minutes (57) than starter Devin Harris (34) during Utah’s last two losses, as Corbin benched four of five starters in the fourth quarter of both defeats.

Players’ self-criticism came just two games after the Jazz pulled off their most meaningful win of the season — a 98-88 road win Sunday at Memphis — showing just how far Utah fell during the next two games, while highlighting cracks that have been running through the team’s shell since the season started.

When the Jazz are at their best, Utah attacks from the opening jump ball, expertly blending a veteran-led first unit with a second team that at times features three lottery picks from 2010 and 2011. But as Bell has often pointed out, the Jazz don’t have the firepower to compete with good teams when they stray from their system, fail to hustle and don’t stick together.

Which is exactly what happened during Utah’s last two losses. The unity built during a team-building trip Saturday to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn., had already been forgotten. And the Jazz were again searching for answers, accepting the fact they’re average, at best, when controllable assets such as effort and intensity are casually tossed aside.

"I can’t speak for anyone [else’s effort]. I can’t. I just can’t. That’s not my place," Bell said. "I don’t know if one person thinks they’re giving more effort than they are or they’re not. I don’t know. But I come out to play hard every game and I don’t know any other way to do it. But if that’s what [reporters] are seeing, then maybe there’s something to that."

bsmith@sltrib.com