Utah Jazz: L.A. victory makes Kyle Korver's strong performance a footnote

SALT LAKE CITY — When the basketball ended up in Kyle Korver's hands Saturday night, great things seemed to happen for the Utah Jazz.

Korver hit his first eight shots, sank 9 of 10 field-goal attempts and landed all five long balls launched from 3-point territory.

Then, while the Los Angeles Lakers were inbounding the ball with a one-point lead and six seconds remaining in Game 3, the ball suddenly and unexpectedly ended up in Korver's hands.

The Jazz called timeout with 4.4 seconds remaining following his steal, and something great seemed on the verge of happening again.

Two clean shots later — a missed 3 by Deron Williams and a near-heroic tip-in try by Wesley Matthews — and something not-so-great happened instead.

Just like that, the Jazz were thrown up against a historical wall and Korver's biggest game of the entire 2009-10 campaign proved to be for naught.

The shooting guard's team suffered the same result in his sparkling 23-point Game 3 effort as it had in the previous two games — losses to the Lakers in which he combined to score 11 points.

"It just wasn't enough," Korver said.

His name isn't likely to be bandied about in the blame game after this performance — on the offensive end, at least. Korver had the third-highest shooting percentage in Jazz playoff history, trailing 9-for-9 and 10-for-11 hot nights by Bobby Hansen back in the 1980s.

"Kyle was huge," Matthews said. "Kyle made a lot of big plays, a lot of big shots. He stepped up big for us."

Added Williams: "Kyle played great tonight. ... His confidence was high. We were trying to get the ball to him."

And why not?

Korver hit several quick-release mid-range jumpers and all those long shots — tying Deron Williams' 5-for-5 3-point outing against the Lakers two years ago for most treys made without a miss.

"I tried to be aggressive tonight," Korver said. "I wanted to try to be a spark off the bench for out team."

Korver even made a rare post-up bucket over Shannon Brown.

"I got a couple of good looks early and just found a little rhythm," Korver said. "The more shots you hit, the tougher shots you're looking to take."

Problem is, that theory worked both ways.