"I don't think we've necessarily proved anything to ourselves," Kyle Korver said. "I think we were confident enough the whole time, but we kind of showed some other people that we're here to play."

Having lost Games 1 and 2 in Los Angeles, the Jazz will return for tonight's Game 5 having shortened this to a best-of-three series. They will have to win at least one game on the Lakers' court, but two more victories would put the Jazz back in the conference finals.

"It's a big game," Deron Williams said. "It's definitely a momentum game and it puts a lot of pressure on whoever doesn't win."

The Jazz know the series won't be over. They lost Game 5 at Houston in the first round last year but won Games 6 and 7 to advance. Even if the Jazz win, the Lakers did beat them in Utah on March 20.

"Even if we win Game 5," Matt Harpring said, "they can come in and they're capable of beating us at home. We're not invincible, we know that."

Three keys to the game

SELF STARTERS

The Jazz buried themselves in the Games 1 and 2, falling behind by double digits in the first half. After both games, the Jazz could lament one bad quarter that cost them. Look for Deron Williams to push the ball early and look to score himself.

"That's the reason we lost both Games 1 and 2 is because of slow starts and bad first halves," Williams said. "They came out and jumped on us and we were never really fully able to recover. We got within a couple of points but we just couldn't get over that hump."

IN RESERVE

After watching their reserves outscore the Lakers' 11-5 to start the fourth quarter Sunday, the Jazz hope they can get the same production out of Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap, Ronnie Price and Harpring again.

"When they play like that, we can beat anybody," Williams said. "They have their confidence now, so they should be able to play really good [tonight]."

BACK TO BASICS

After having back spasms in Game 4, Kobe Bryant, right, was able to take advantage of a two-day break between games for rest and treatment. The early clues as to his health will come if Bryant is settling for jumpers.

"We expect him to be healthy," Matt Harpring said. "When Kobe got the ball [in Game 4], I didn't really see too much of an injury. We expect more of the same with Kobe. I mean, he took 33 shots. That's a lot of shots."