I never thought I would see this man looking so smug. 41 points and 9 rebounds later… yup, pretty smug.

For various reasons, including me just being really, really busy with other stuff in my life (you know, stuff I actually get paid for), I haven’t posted in a long while. But I can’t stay silent after last night’s game. It was pure torture, seeing that grinning bastard sprinting like a cheetah down the court on fast breaks, rolling past Memo and Boozer like they weren’t there, throwing down dunks and 3-pointers with equal aplomb, kneeing Kyle Korver (the one Jazzman who looked like he came to play last night) in the back after a hard foul… I just couldn’t take it. It was the first time I’d turned off a game before the final buzzer in a long time.

There are serious issues with this Jazz team, issues that I thought were starting to resolve after Gordan Giricek got his pink slip and Korver brought a burst of enthusiasm to the squad. I allowed myself to ignore these issues during Utah’s four-game winning streak. I hoped that racking up some wins would help the team turn the corner. It hasn’t. We still can’t win on the road, we still can’t play defense at all, we still fade in the second half… I can’t even list all the things that bother me about this team, even if we are still four games over .500.

The lack of defense is what bothers me more than anything. This team can play defense when pressed. We have good defenders — Ronnie Brewer, Deron Williams, Paul Millsap. Korver has been a surprisingly decent defender, despite his reputation. Memo can body up big men when he wants to. It’s not that we’re not capable. We are.

The funny thing is, any observer can point to each individual player and tell you why that player is not playing quality defense.

For D-Will, Okur and Boozer, it’s because they think too much about the offensive end of the court. (D-Will, especially, takes it personally when someone scores on him, but his way of getting revenge is to score right back, not to step it up and get the steal or the charge next time defensively.)

For AK-47, it’s because he still loves to snipe from the back side in hopes of getting a block. He sometimes deliberately lets his man past him just so he can wind up for the swat. It’s entertaining to watch, but it isn’t good defense.

For Ronnie Brewer, it’s because he’s not getting along with Jerry Sloan (did anyone see their spat last night?), plus he’s terrified he’s going to get pulled from the game as soon as he makes a mistake (which guarantees he will screw up, which guarantees he’s going to get the hook). Ditto for CJ Miles.

For Paul Millsap, it’s because he lets stupid foul calls get in his head, which makes him play tentatively. He’s still not getting the benefit of the doubt from refs, and gets two or three iffy calls a night, and they really affect him.

Korver, Harpring, Hart and Collins do the best they can, but the fact of the matter is that all of them are too slow. (although I have loved Korver’s effort so far. Also, Collins and Hart blow.)

So you can find all of these problems. They’re real. They’re specific. They can be solved, or at least accounted for. But that isn’t the overriding issue.

Heart. Confidence. Toughness. Determination. Guts. That’s what this team is lacking. We had it last year during the playoffs. We don’t have it now. I don’t know where it went. But until we get it back, this Jazz team is going nowhere. Except the lottery.

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Layton Shumway is the copy chief for Brigham Young University’s Daily Universe. You can reach him at lss83@byu.net.