Mehmet Okur swore in anger on his way to the locker room after the Jazz lost to the Sacramento Kings Saturday, 104-99, in Salt Lake City.

That pretty much summarizes how every Jazz fan feels after the first two weeks of the season. The question - the one question - I had coming into this year's NBA season was this: would the Jazz be able to rebound efficiently and play solid defense consistently? The answer? No. Heavens, no. Bottom line, being a Jazz fan these days is tough.

The hallmark of a winning team is to be able to execute and win with efficiency wherever it plays. That means a team needs to play a solid four quarters. Coming into Saturday's matchup against the Kings - the Jazz lost 104-99 - the Jazz were 2-3 after surrendering a double-digit fourth-quarter lead to Dallas's Dirk Nowitsky on the road and losing to Houston at home. Well, the Jazz are back to form. They surrendered a 15-point lead in the second quarter and let the Kings, the pitiful Western bottom-dweller who came with their best player out of the game, obtain their own double-digit lead in a game they had no business contending for in the first place. I simply must ask why. Jerry Sloan provides the answer.

"We played strong for one quarter," Sloan said, "and it looked like we thought we had the ball game won. Then they came back and put us on our heels. I don't know where all our energy went, but it went away quick because we had a very difficult time trying to guard them, get over screens, back door cuts. They just outplayed us, out-coached us, everything else."

That's exactly it. The Jazz have not played with energy. Except for two games this season, the Jazz have not played with the desire to win for a full 48 minutes at all. A fellow member of the media at Saturday's matchup said the Jazz appeared to want to prove that indeed they are the worst team in the league. After Saturday's absolutely wretched performance in the second and third quarters, I completely agree. I fear the team will begin to learn how to lose consistently with each game it plays if it continues down this path. These types of losses make being a Jazz fan awfully difficult.

Most of Utah's problems lie in long stretches where the Jazz give up destructive runs similar to the one in Dallas. But these are not just ordinary runs. These are huge, backbreaking runs that put winning out of the question. The Jazz simply quit playing, and by the time the team actually considers competing, the game is too far out of reach for the outcome to change.

Who do I blame? Well, I can't blame any individual performance for Saturday's loss - that was everyone's fault. The Jazz couldn't shoot, they couldn't figure out how to overcome the zone defense, they couldn't make a clutch free throw, and they couldn't play defense. So, I can't blame anyone exclusively for the loss, but I will say Carlos Boozer had a huge role in the outcome.

Boozer's numbers don't lie. He usually is a double-double machine. However, Boozer is not clutch, and that's my biggest complaint against him. Good teams play with energy. Good teams play with effort. Boozer provides neither to the Jazz. I don't care who he is and how much he is paid, if he doesn't jump when an opponent takes a shot and doesn't box out, he obviously doesn't care who wins the game. It makes me crazy that the Jazz won't trade him, but Kevin O'Conner and the Jazz front office are wise. The Jazz will not trade him unless they get fair market value for him, and who will the Jazz get for Boozer? No one that can produce the double-doubles that Boozer can when he shows up. Boozer makes being a Jazz fan awfully difficult.

Also, the Jazz continue to be plagued by the injury bug. Kyle Korver and C.J. Miles are injured. Yeah, yeah. What else is new? That's all I've heard from Energy Solutions Arena for the last year and a half. The injuries are so old and tired. I don't blame the players for the legitimate injuries that have occurred, but the injuries make being a Jazz fan awfully difficult.

Utah must now hit the road to face New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Cleveland. Boozer outlined the situation for the Jazz's sorry position now.

"Regardless, we've got to pick ourselves up," he said. "We've got four games on this road trip, and we've got to try to win all four if we can. We've got to nip this in the bud."

In the words of Yoda, "Do or do not. There is no try."

So in the name of all Jazz fans everywhere, I raise my voice and shout, "Come on. Just go get it done."

-la.hem@aggiemail.usu.edu