Korver hit the resulting free throw to put Utah ahead by three, and the Jazz retained possession. Korver first missed a trey try, which Matt Harpring rebounded. Williams then set up for a pick-and-roll with Boozer, who spotted Harpring under the basket. A stumbling Harpring couldn't handle Boozer's pass, but he managed to push it out to Korver, who hit the 24-footer to put the Jazz comfortably ahead at 95-89 with just 48.1 seconds to go.

"I was just trying to get ready in case it got kicked out to me," Korver said, "and it did."

That he made the shot seemed only fitting on a night Utah beat the same team that eliminated it from last postseason's Western Conference finals.

The Jazz, after all, shot 50 percent from the field en route to one of their most impressive offensive outings of the season — even if they did fail to hang 100 or more on the Spurs for the 35th consecutive time, a streak dating to February of 1999.

"When guys are (shooting like that) it spreads the floor out and makes things easier for everybody," Williams said. "It makes things easier for the pick-and-roll, it frees up a lot of people to get shots."

"We did a good job of executing our plays, setting good screens, hitting the open man," Boozer added. "That's how you have to play against them. You have to be really on your A-game against the champs."

The Jazz were, and it got them somewhere they haven't been in quite some time.

Not that it's necessarily an end-all to their December blues.

"We'll validate it in April," Boozer said. "When we're in the playoffs, we're good.

"Right now," he added, "we just got in. We have a lot of basketball to be played, we have a lot of improvement to make and there are a lot of good teams ahead of us — so, our validation will come when the season's over and we're in a playoff spot."