It's Officially Time To Stick A Fork In This Iteration Of The Utah Jazz After 2nd Straight Loss to Luka-Less Mavs

Katelyn Mulcahy. Getty Images.

The Utah Jazz have been this kind of cute, little-engine-that-could type of team for several years now. I used to hate them when they played MJ and the Bulls in the Finals. No Jazz squad has gone that deep since those days, but thanks to some savvy front office work and great coaching, they've at least been relevant, entertaining and a frisky underdog to pull for most of the time.

Quin Snyder took over as coach in 2014 and slowly built a strong program in Salt Lake City. Much of it was predicated on building an elite defense around Rudy Gobert. The All-Star center is one of the greatest interior defenders ever, no one is debating that. But in the past two years, thanks to Donovan Mitchell's ascent to superstardom, Utah has a top-10 scoring offense to complement its Gobert-led D.

Here's the problem: The Jazz are regular-season darlings who've routinely proven, time and again, that they can't get over the hump in the playoffs. This year marks their sixth straight postseason berth. From the looks of what's happening in their latest series against the Dallas Mavericks, they will be eliminated in the opening round for the third time in that span. 

Too early to call the series, you say? Well here's a stat: Teams who win Game 3 in a best-of-seven series go on to win the set 73.2.% of the time. The all-time series record for Game 3 victors is 180-66. Dallas came out on top 126-118 in Utah on Thursday night to take a 2-1 edge.

Stacking the odds even more in the Mavs' favor is the fact that they easily could've won the opener…and they're getting Luka Doncic back for Game 4.

I'm not going to discredit what Dallas' players are doing. Jalen Brunson has been sensational, backing up his 41-point Game 3 performance by scoring 31 more to drive another win. Three of the Mavs' bench guys combined to shoot 11-for-17 from 3-point range in Game 3.

It's the worst-kept secret in the NBA that Mitchell and Gobert don't get along. I can't imagine losing to a Mavs team without Doncic twice in a row is going to help them band together. Even if Game 4 is a must-win scenario, the Jazz don't seem as engaged, or as interested in playing with and for each other the way Dallas is.

And I'm attributing the spirited second-half rally more to the fact that Utah trailed 68-51 at halftime and GOT BOOED OFF THEIR HOME FLOOR. Even their local media was coming at them HARD.

See, what the Mavs are doing right now sans Luka is PRECISELY what used to make Quin's Jazz teams so endearing. They always felt a little bit shorthanded, yet they always scrapped, fought, and never shied away from the grind.

Gobert is too limited offensively to be built around with the way the NBA is going. He's the team's highest-paid player and will be for several seasons to come unless he's traded. And Utah's offense is way too dependent on Mitchell to be as consistent as they could be. 

Another problem is, the Jazz aren't a premier free-agent destination. I'm not sure they'd splurge to go over the luxury tax for another star anyway, but just getting someone to Salt Lake City is a challenge.

I'm not a big "LOOK AT HIS BODY LANGUAGE" guy. That said, if you look at Snyder during games, he seems exhausted. It's like he's squeezed everything he possibly could out of all his Utah teams, and there's not anything left to wring out. He's tired of all the speculation surrounding Gobert and Mitchell, too. He's admitted as much to the media.

I don't see a way back for this iteration of the Jazz. They should blow it up after these playoffs, unless they miraculously recover and do go on to advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since 2007. Not holding my breath on that, though — especially with LUKAAAAAAA coming back!