SALT LAKE CITY -- Deron Williams forced himself back into the NBA conversation just as much as the Jazz clawed their way back into this series with the Lakers over the weekend.

Actually, the second part of that sentence depended on the first. For a young team seeking consistent efforts in these playoffs, Williams is turning into the Jazz's most reliable option. Carlos Boozer had his best game of the postseason Friday night, then regressed to a 5-for-15 shooting performance Sunday. Williams followed a solid effort in Game 3 with an even better Game 4, a 123-115 overtime win, the central recurring character in the two Jazz victories that evened these Western Conference semifinals at 2-2.

"If we're struggling to score, I try to assert myself in the game," Williams said.

He played so masterfully Sunday, had his hand in so many positive things for the Utah Jazz, that there really was only one question to ask.

How'd you get your shot blocked by Derek Fisher?

After the Lakers mounted a 12-point comeback in the fourth quarter, Williams had a chance to win the game in the waning seconds. But Fisher got a piece of Williams' jumper and the Lakers safely recovered. It was, statistically, almost as unlikely as Tim Duncan's 3-pointer in the Spurs' first playoff game; Fisher blocked only three shots the entire season.

"I should've went right," Williams said. "I wish I had the play over again. He did a great job of defending and getting his hand up."

No problem for Williams and the Jazz; they outscored the Lakers 15-7 in overtime, and he got four more points and three more assists to pad his totals to 29 and 14.

The Lakers kept lamenting their inability to get stops at critical times, and the main reason for that was their inability to corral Williams. At one point my editor e-mailed to say Williams looked like Joe Montana running things in the pocket. But a couple of key plays looked more like Brett Favre improvisations.

On the first, Williams saved the ball from going into the backcourt then dribbled, spun and hit a fallaway 20-footer to restore Utah's lead to three points.

On another he spun out of a sideline double-team by Bryant and Lamar Odom, stumbled and somehow got the ball to Boozer, who was fouled by Fisher and converted both free throws.

More heady play from Williams, who is savvy enough for Jazz coach Jerry Sloan to entrust with the offense after calling most of the plays from the sidelines during the John Stockton era.

"I think he's a terrific player," Sloan said of Williams. "He tries to get us into what we want to do. He's great at trying to get players to where they need to be. He's just grown and grown and grown as a great player every day. You don't have much coaching to do when he does what he does."

We're used to all of the crunch-time accolades going to Bryant. But he never was the same after wrenching his back on a turnaround jump shot on the second play of the game and shot 2-for-13 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

He went into the locker room for some stretching exercises at the end of the first quarter, emerged and wrapped a heat pad back around it, and appeared to aggravate it several times during the course of the game. Afterward he had an electrical stimulator working his back muscles, and he conducted his press conference while standing and holding a wireless microphone ("Like Don Cornelius," he noted).

He said he "should be OK," by Wednesday and he'll "definitely play in Game 5."

The Lakers hoped to close out the series by then, but now they'll have to make another trip to Salt Lake City for Game 6 Friday.

In addition to Bryant's injury, the Lakers were undone by 11 misses among their 25 free throws, three fouls that limited Fisher to only 3½ minutes in the first half, and the ejection of backup big man Ronny Turiaf for a flagrant foul 2 on Ronnie Price that was a case of the impact looking much worse than the intent.

Sasha Vujacic rebounded from his scoreless Game 3 to score 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting, but the rest of the reserves were so ineffective, Lakers coach Phil Jackson had to call them out after the game, when he also criticized Bryant's teammates for becoming too dependent on their ailing star in crunch time.

"I was angry at his teammates for dropping the ball off in his lap," Jackson said. "I thought guys just bailed out on him."

"I know what he means by that," Bryant said. "He wants them to come at me, but come to me later, not right away and just stand around."

To some, watching Bryant limp around this building was reminiscent of Michael Jordan's "sick game" in the 1997 NBA Finals, when he willed himself through the pain. Sloan indicated he had some of those flashbacks himself.

"That's not a pleasant feeling," Sloan said. "I've been in it a couple of times and usually come up short."

This time, the Jazz prevailed. This time, they had the impact star. His name happened to be Deron Williams.

J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.

SALT LAKE CITY -- At least the spectators in Utah aren't booing him anymore.

Beyond that, though, Derek Fisher can't seem to buy a break.

The ex-Jazz guard who is now back running the point for the Los Angeles Lakers has battled foul trouble early in the past two games of the Western Conference semifinal series between the two teams, and even when he warmed up late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's Game 4, it still wasn't enough.

"It's bothered us both games,'' Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of Fisher's quick fouls, which on Sunday resulted in his logging just four first-half minutes.

Fisher can only hope it doesn't happen again when the series -- tied 2-2 after Utah's 123-115 overtime win in Game 4 -- resumes Wednesday in Los Angeles.

"You can't change in terms of playing aggressive and being physical out on the floor,'' he said. "But I definitely don't want to continue to put myself in the position where I'm impacting the team early in the game by having to go to the bench with nine-plus minutes to go in the first quarter."

Late in Sunday's fourth quarter, however, Fisher practically owned the floor.

With MVP Kobe Bryant slowed by a bad back that he twisted on his second shot of the game, Fisher -- booed derisively in his first return to Utah this season by many Jazz fans who questioned the circumstances of his departure from the franchise and his relatively quick re-signing with the much-despised Lakers -- took over.

With Utah up by 12 and fewer than four minutes to go, Fisher knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner. Next possession, a 3-pointer from the left corner. And after hitting a free throw stemming from a technical foul on Mehmet Okur, it was back to the right for yet another trey.

By the time the fourth quarter was done, Fisher was up to 15 points and OT was on.

"One of them I just helped a little bit too much. I recovered, but once he's in his rhythm, it is going up,'' Jazz point guard Deron Williams said after a 29-point, 14-assist day boosted in part by Fisher's foul issues. "Another one he got a back screen, I didn't see it coming.

"He just got hot at the end of the game,'' added Williams, who also had a potential game-winning shot blocked by Fisher late in regulation, "and did a great job making shots for them and forcing overtime.''

Ultimately, though, the Jazz would prevail.

That left Fisher -- who asked out of his contract in Utah last summer to be close to requisite medical care for his young daughter Tatum, who underwent surgery last May for her rare childhood eye cancer -- bemoaning what easily could have been a 3-1 Lakers series lead.

"It was a good effort and we gave ourselves a chance to win the game,'' said Fisher, who won three NBA title rings during his first stay in L.A. "On the road, sometimes that's all you can ask for."

That, and perhaps some of the respect he finally seems to be getting from fans who not long ago cheered him as one of their own.

Tim Buckley covers the Utah Jazz for the Deseret News.

SAN ANTONIO -- Maybe it's a one-game mirage, or maybe they were playing possum on us the whole time.

All I know is after three games of watching a team called the Spurs battle the Hornets, Sunday I finally felt like I was watching the defending champion San Antonio Spurs.

In evening their best-of-seven series 2-2 with a 100-80 rout of New Orleans, the Spurs did everything we've become accustomed to over the past few years. Each of their Big Three produced big numbers, with Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan combining for 54 points in the first three quarters to put the champs up 85-61 before the Hornets waved the white flag.

The Spurs' ball movement was outrageously good, with the ball flying around the perimeter once one of the Big Three gave it up and seemingly always landing in the paws of an open shooter. That enabled the Spurs to shoot 58.9 percent through three quarters and assist 22 of their 33 field goals; nearly all the ones that weren't assisted were straight screen-and-roll drives by Parker.

"It's all about moving the ball against these guys," Duncan said. "We know where they're coming from and we have to find our shooters and make jump shots."

The offense was a major factor, but the D was just as important. San Antonio stopped the Hornets for the first time all series, by using the same strategy they've used successfully against Phoenix's Steve Nash and applying it to Chris Paul.

They let him get his points (23) but cut off the Hornets' other scorers -- through three quarters his teammates only had 38 points. (Side note: I'm using all third quarter stats here since the game had effectively ended by then; we don't care how 12 minutes of Jacque Vaughn and Ryan Bowen impacted the numbers).

• For the full John Hollinger story, click here.