"We've just got to focus on the first one, getting the first one," Deron Williams said before Thursday's practice. "Sometimes that's all you need is to get that one win and it'll jumpstart you and energize you, and that's what we need."

As much as the Jazz, though, would like to take inspiration from their comeback against Houston, the first two games against the Lakers have played out in nearly identical fashion to the two games they dropped against the Spurs last May.

The Jazz trailed by 19 points in the first half of Game 1 in San Antonio and by 17 at halftime of Game 2. Both times, the Jazz closed within single digits in the second half only to come up short. They won Game 3 at home but went on to fall to the Spurs in five games.

It was almost like the Jazz were reading from the same script when they arrived in Hollywood. They trailed by 17 in the second quarter of Game 1 and by 15 at the end of the first quarter of Game 2, getting no closer than four points in the second half of either game.

"From that perspective, it's similar, absolutely," Carlos Boozer said. "Again, I tell people we've played three good quarters in both games. We've had an elusive quarter."

The Jazz won't be facing elimination when they play Game 3 against Lakers tonight at EnergySolutions Arena, but they might as well be, considering no team in NBA history has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series.

"There's no doubt," Paul Millsap said. "We know what we're capable of doing. We know how we lost those two games. We know we were still in the game at the end of the game. We know we can beat this team, we just have to get out there and do it."

Although they went a league-best 37-4 at home this season, the Jazz had their franchise-record-tying 19-game home winning streak snapped by Lakers on March 20. The Jazz also lost Game 3 at home to Houston in the first round.

"It's not just going to be a given that we're going to win here," Williams said. "We've got to go out and be the aggressor from the start, take it to them."

The Jazz came back from 2-0 down to beat Houston last year by winning all three games at home and capturing Game 7 on the road. But Williams didn't hesitate in answering that this series against the Lakers felt more like last year's against San Antonio.

"They're on the same caliber," Williams said. "Houston's a good team, but we felt we just let two games get away from us. L.A., they took it to us and they were the aggressor and controlled the tempo of the game and controlled both games."

The Lakers swept Denver in the first round and are 6-0 in the playoffs, averaging 114.7 points a game. They've won 14 of their last 15 games going back to March 30. Kobe Bryant has scored 38 and 34 points in the first two games of this series.

"I thought they were playing the best basketball towards the end of the season," Williams said, adding, "Kobe's doing a great job of getting everybody involved and still getting his points. I think guys are just feeding off his energy and the way he's playing."

Boozer, meanwhile, said he didn't get to sleep until 6 a.m. after watching tape of Game 2 again. Boozer went scoreless in the first half, playing just 6:50 because of foul trouble, and missed all three shots he took.

"Just trying to figure out ways to stay out of foul trouble," Boozer said, "and be a little bit more aggressive on offense."

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan talked after Wednesday's loss about the Jazz suffering from inexperience.

Their starting guards, Williams and Ronnie Brewer, have a combined five years of experience compared to 24 years for Bryant and Derek Fisher on the Lakers.

"We're getting on-the-job training," Sloan said. Bryant and Fisher combined to score 56 points in Game 2, compared to 37 for Williams and Brewer.

Much has been made about the Jazz's physical play by both the Rockets and Lakers. The Lakers shot a combined 89 free throws in the first two games, with Sloan finding the 43-16 free-throw disparity in Game 2 particularly galling, given the Jazz outscored the Lakers 58-40 in the paint.

"We scored more points at the basket than they did," Sloan said. "You figure that out. Anytime we score baskets, we score inside, we usually shoot more free throws, for the most part, but we're shooting a lot less.

"But I guess it's because we're a big physical team. They assume that we're going to foul before we start."

Briefly: Williams was selected to the all-NBA second team and Boozer to the third team Thursday. . . . Troy Weaver, the Jazz's director of player personnel and formerly head scout, has been hired as an assistant general manager with Seattle.

rsiler@sltrib.com