They also knew they had five more minutes Sunday to properly rewrite the ending of the game, of the series - of their whole season, really.

"We never have any doubts . . . we're always confident," said Andrei Kirilenko.

"We still had the energy to compete and to bring it," Williams said, "and that's what we did."

Because they did, with a sequence of huge plays from Mehmet Okur and several defensive stands in overtime, the agonizing last four minutes of the fourth quarter are pretty much incidental now, and the series is just getting started after the Jazz's 123-115 win. It's even at two games apiece now, with a whole different feel to this little competition than when the teams left Los Angeles after two Lakers victories.

"We're definitely confident now," Williams said after just another Sunday afternoon outing in Salt Lake City - the most riveting, thrilling, excruciating, exhilirating game at EnergySolutions Arena since Fisher's famous homecoming celebration in a Jazz uniform last May. It lasted exactly three hours, draining everybody who played, coached or watched, and it left the crowd wanting more, which these teams will dutifully provide for at least two games this week.

Asked about dealing with Kobe Bryant, Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "You should have to sit there and worry about that. That's not a pleasant feeling."

Actually, most of those nearly 20,000 fans understood, although they were standing - not sitting - during the tense, concluding moments when the Jazz had the game won, seemingly lost it, then won it for good.

Imagine, just for a moment, if the Jazz had not responded the way they did in overtime. Their season almost surely would have ended Wednesday night in L.A., leading to a summer spent replaying their gradual crumbling Sunday. It was a stunning collapse or comeback, from one perspective or the other.

The Lakers scored 20 points on their last seven possessions of regulation, eating up a 12-point Jazz lead. Their flurry included four three-pointers (three of them by Fisher over Williams), a three-point play, a dunk, a rebound basket and a technical-foul free throw, after a poorly timed protest by Okur.

"I deserved it, by the way," Okur said.

The Jazz certainly did not deserve to lose this game, even if they almost did. If the Lakers had surged ahead in overtime, it would have been open season on Sloan's defensive approach for giving up all those threes.

Sloan labeled the breakdowns a case when Williams and others "maybe helped too much and didn't recover enough."

Because the Jazz recovered in OT, only the good stuff will be remembered. Among the highlights was Ronnie Price's returning from being hammered by Ronny Turiaf and needing four stitches above his right eye, driving for a three-point play in the fourth quarter and later racing back to block Luke Walton's breakaway layup.

There was also Kirilenko's defense on Bryant, who was 6-for-19 from the field after halftime, having hurt his back while missing a turnaround shot on the Lakers' second possession, but still playing 46 1/2 minutes. "No excuses from me," said Bryant, who had to stand during his brief news conference, probably not out of respect for the questioners. "A.K. did a great job."

The Jazz bench of Price, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and Matt Harpring helped greatly, building a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter. It eventually became 12, until Fisher went crazy. Just think if the Lakers had gone ahead and topped off their rally, and Fisher would have been the biggest factor, a year after the Jazz kindly released him from his contract for family reasons.

As it is, the Jazz's poise and determination in overtime is Sunday's story. Okur made two long two-point shots when both teams were struggling to score, and he also chased down an offensive rebound in the last minute of a two-point game. That led to Williams' backdoor feed to Kirilenko for a three-point play that basically ended Game 4, and restarted the series.

KURT KRAGTHORPE caan be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.