It was exactly one month ago -- OK, one day short of exactly -- that Moderator Aldridge tipped off the debate with a question for the ageless.

	Is this the year that Karl Malone and the Jazz finally fall out of the playoffs?

A March 8 debate about whether this is the best, deepest Jazz ensemble in Utah's history.

It was merely two Monday priors that How 'Bout This Jazz, fronted by a 39-year-old and an almost 38-year-old, were just a half-game behind San Antonio in the chase for the league's best record, needing only a home win over the Dallas Mavericks to catch up.

Well, it's a new month. Another Monday, with an entirely new Big Question. That being: How could this Jazz so quickly slide to funk?

Into a funk, we mean. The team Mr. Karl Malone so earnestly argued was "without a doubt" better and deeper than the NBA Finalists of 1997 and 1998? Suddenly, they're in deep.

Not as deeply inharmonious and vulnerable as the Portland Trail Blazers, maybe, but life ain't exactly rosy at the Delta Celter, either. Utah has lost five of its past eight games, eight of 15, and four of six at home. The Jazz has to win its final two DC games to avoid the club's worst record at home since 1985-86 -- Mailman's very first season.

With four of its final five games on the road, after Monday's home date with Houston, the Jazz is in actual danger of starting a first-round series as the away team for the first time since 1994. The Ultimate Mail, 38 in July, is hoping that Saturday's victory at Dallas will have ignited a turnaround, just like losing to the Mavericks launched the slippage. But he doesn't sound so sure anymore.

"It's big, but it's overrated, too," Malone said of home-court advantage, which the Jazz currently claims by one game over those aforementioned Mavvies. "If we're playing good basketball, I don't think it'll matter. That's what we have to get back to -- and we're not there yet."

	“	How many times have you seen that on a team -- where a 39-year-old and a 38-year-old are the leading players? For crying out loud. Then we screw up a little and they're maligned, because they're that age and their energy level supposedly drops. "Nobody ever mentions that the young guys' energy level drops. Always talk about Stockton and Malone. Those other guys get paid, too. When they don't work, we can't win anyway. ”
		— Jerry Sloan

Turns out even a veteran team like this Jazz, with its two granddaddies and all the new contributors, can lose confidence as quickly as clubs led by relative kiddies. Utah has scored 100 points in only four of the past 14 games, only once against a winning team in that stretch, and hasn't been any better defensively.

All of which has enraged Malone -- "I hate it because we're giving [critics] satisfaction, they think they're right" -- and has launched Jerry Sloan on a serious offensive. Sloan knows what you're thinking, that we're finally seeing some age from StocktontoMalone, and that's why this Jazz is 6-14 against the other top contenders in the West: San Antonio (0-4), Sacramento (1-3), Lakers (2-2), Dallas (2-2) and Portland (1-3).

"How many times have you seen that on a team -- where a 39-year-old and a 38-year-old are the leading players?" Sloan bellowed. "For crying out loud. Then we screw up a little and they're maligned, because they're that age and their energy level supposedly drops.

"Nobody ever mentions that the young guys' energy level drops. Always talk about John Stockton and Malone. Those other guys get paid, too. When they don't work, we can't win anyway."

The real problem, Sloan argues, is that the Jazz has adopted a "Shoot First, Defense Second mentality." And they've been mostly perimeter shots, according to Malone. "To be honest, too many outside shots," Mail said. "We're not an outside-inside team. That's not Jazz basketball."

We know.

	Marshall

	Russell

We've also taken note of Sloan's recent lineup switch: Bryon Russell in for John Starks at shooting guard, to see if that will spark at least one of the two. Sloan is also riding Donyell Marshall, who so recently was being hailed as a 6-10 revelation. Malone credited Marshall for making his usual route "a little bit easier."

Marshall still easily makes the list of finalists for Most Improved Player honors, but there's no denying the numbers. In January and February, Marshall averaged 18 points per outing. In March, it was 14. In April, he's scoring 10 a game. Saturday in Dallas, when Marshall supplied 21 points in support of Malone's 31, Sloan's response wasn't exactly complimentary.

"He isn't rebounding the basketball like you'd think he'd be able to," Sloan said.

Which is far from Sloan's only complaint, of course. There was the squandering of an 11-point lead in the Dallas game at Delta on March 26, which gave life to the Jazz funk. There was the waste of a 21-point lead at home to Sacramento on Thursday.

Failure to finish games makes it too easy for us (gullible?) critics to suggest that the proverbial window is slipping back down towards shut.

	Stockton

"This is a tremendous team," Sloan countered. "They can win it all. [We've] got intelligent guys who know how to play. Pass the ball to the right people, that's what we've always done. But we haven't been able to do it the last month or so.

"Everyone's got to work through tough times. That's the fun part of the business, more than anything, to see who's going to fight back when things get tough. It's always fun to go to work and see who's going to work. That's the best part of my job -- seeing who's going to come bust their ass tomorrow. When guys don't play hard, I always look forward to the next day."

Until the next meeting of the Debate Club ...

	Hill

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