The Utah Jazz were not going to be denied on the night that their beloved "Bear" mascot was inducted into the mascot hall of fame.  Emotions were running high with Senator Oren Hatch and members of the Osmond family on hand to mark the ocasion.  The Jazz are off to their best start in years by starting the season 3-0 and the Warriors are stumbling out of the gate and were badly outclassed by a Jerry Sloan squad highlited by an enormous front line and some exciting young backcourt players.

I really don't know where to start in describing the problems that the Warriors have as a team.  It starts with the energy level that the players bring to the floor.  I know the excuses about playing the night before, traveling into a high altitude city and all that garbage, but the bottom line is that the Warriors were a full step slower than the Jazz all night long and appeared to be literally running in mud for the majority of the game. 

The mad professor who spends his days and nights tirelessly devising new experiments to maximize the potential of former third overall pick Mike Dunleavy not only should lose his funding for research, but they should strip him of his tenure and he should be locked away in a mental institution for ever devising that Mike had the ability to run an NBA offense.  I will say it one final time...Mike Dunleavy is not an NBA quality basketball player.  If his father was not there to pave the way for him to do so, not only would he have never been drafted in the first round, but he would be lucky to make a NBDL roster as a reserve.  With that being said, Dunleavy isn't the problem.

To find the reason for the Warriors lack of success you need look no further than the backcourt, and no I don't consider Dunleavy to be a legitmate member of the backcourt.  Quite Frankly, if Baron Davis Monta Ellis and Jason Richardson don't combine for 60 pts a night, this team has absolutely no chance to win.  Davis and Ellis have been healthy but are both struggling for consistancy.  Richardson coming off Knee-Surgery is understandably rusty and all three have had little success in shooting the basketball.  Davis was simply awfull against the Jazz and has already relapsed into dominating the ball and settling for fade away jumpers.  The entire team has struggled from the free-throw line, but there is simply no excuse for guards to be missing so many free throws.

My quick fix for the problems the team is now facing would be to rely more heavily on the young players on the roster and make the veterans earn their way back into the starting lineup.  Ellis, Pietrus, Diogu, Biedrins and O'bryant have been consistantly better than their veteran counterparts.  The best and most consistant lineup consists of Davis, Ellis, Pietrus, Diogu and Biedrins.  J-Rich, O'bryant, Dunleavy and Murphy would be reliable bench players and either Roberson or Wagner could be the scoring spark off the bench.  I trust that Nelly knows what he is doing, but I am starting to question his passion.  He was pretty subdued on the bench and in the lockerroom after the game where in the past he would have been screaming and cursing at people after a display of this nature.  He also seems to be sticking with innefective players much longer than he would have in the past.  I am befuddled that we have yet to see DaJuan Wagner and I am really starting to wonder if there is not some illness or injury involved with him that we are unaware of because we desperately need his offense and J-Rich is clearly not ready to carry the load he is being given.