New opportunity — Utah Jazz try to even the series, something they missed against Spurs

Down 0-2 to the West's No. 1 seed, and the team many favor to win it all, they rally to win Game 3 and make it a series.

Or at least some semblance of one.

It's familiar territory for the Jazz.

It was just last year, in fact — in the Western Conference finals against the eventual NBA-champion San Antonio Spurs — that Utah was in the very position it is now in the 2008 Western semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers.

And we all know how that Game 4 went.

Fourth-quarter follies. Twenty-five free throws for the Spurs in that final period, four technical fouls on the Jazz courtesy of Steve Javie and crew. Utah falls by 12, then travels to San Antonio for an embarrassing Game 5 loss.

Series over.

For today's ABC-televised Game 4 against the Lakers, truth be told, the feeling is not all that dissimilar.

After winning 104-99 on Friday night at EnergySolutions Arena, the Jazz again are down 2-1 in a best-of-seven series against one of the NBA's elite.

Yet they're holding onto hope.

"We felt we could win Game 4 last year," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said Saturday. "It just didn't happen the way we wanted it to."

If there is anything different about this afternoon, it may be that the Jazz do not seem to be nearly as mesmerized by Kobe Bryant and Co. as they were by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.

"I don't think we're in awe of anybody," Williams said. "Maybe when Kobe throws it off the backboard to himself."

That incredible Game 3 play by Bryant aside — the NBA MVP passed out of a trap to himself off the backboard, then dunked the ball home for a fourth-quarter bucket — it was the Jazz whose play on Friday dazzled most.

They played inside-out. They had just seven steals, but a boatload of deflections. They fought for loose balls, they weren't afraid to take the ball to the hole and they managed to do it all without falling into the trap of foul trouble.

Jazz All-Star Carlos Boozer, in fact, feels Utah finally dialed in Friday on the formula to success.