Thursday night's summary, in order: The Lakers were horrible, the Jazz were adequate, the Jazz were terrible, the Lakers were great and then the Jazz were brilliant, with Deron Williams delivering a step-back jumper in the lane with 2.2 seconds remaining in an 88-86 win at EnergySolutions Arena.

I would have more to say about the ending, except that 7-foot-4 Mark Eaton was blocking my view during a tense, tight fourth quarter when just about everybody in the building was standing and screaming.

It sounded like quite a finish, concluding a strange and scintillating game that the Jazz won with defense, or so they claimed.

quot;We made them shoot 36 percent; that's how we look at it,quot; said Carlos Boozer, who personally broke three ties in the last 90 seconds of the game, before Williams did so one last time.

Even with the Lakers playing along wonderfully by missing a whole game's worth of shots in the first half, the Jazz seemingly refused for a long, long time to take advantage of the best opportunity they ever could have hoped for in this first-round playoff series.

Just as remarkably, at the point when things appeared as bleak as they could with the Jazz trailing by 13 points in the third quarter, everything changed.

Matt Harpring led a Jazz resurgence that powered them into the lead early in the fourth period, and then it really got intriguing. Over the last nine minutes, the Jazz never trailed, but never led by more than four points and the game was tied five times.

In the end, Williams came through with only his third basket of the night, having also struggled from the free-throw line. The winning shot came after Boozer (23 points, 22 rebounds) wheeled into the lane and threw down a left-handed dunk with 16.9 seconds left, only to have L.A.'s Pau Gasol tie things again with his own dunk.

Williams scored only 13 points, two nights after hitting for 35 in Los Angeles, but he finished beautifully, and Kobe Bryant's three-point miss at the horn ended his own 5-for-24 game.

Regardless of anything the Jazz could do, the potential for either of two extremes occurring -- the Jazz's pulling even in the series or being swept -- seemed to hinge entirely on the Lakers' shooting in these two games in Salt Lake City.

The Lakers' 30 percent shooting in the first half was actually worse than that number suggests, but was boosted by Lamar Odom's ability to turn offensive rebounds into baskets.

Otherwise, the statistics were staggering. Bryant was 1-for-10, Trevor Ariza and Shannon Brown were a combined 0-for-6, and the Lakers' starters were 7-for-28.

And yet the Jazz led by only four points.

And when Bryant drilled a corner three-pointer after grabbing a loose ball on the opening sequence of the second half and Odom followed with a dunk, the lead was suddenly gone. The Lakers just kept coming, and the Jazz were reeling.

But the Jazz cut the lead to eight by the third quarter's end, stormed ahead as the fourth period opened and won in the end. Go ahead, give that check mark in the quot;missed opportunityquot; column to the Lakers.

kkragthorpe@sltrib.com