If you believe the Jazz, victory was a matter of rolling on and giving all they've got. If you believe the Portland Trail Blazers, it was more like rolling over and handing Utah a gimme.
Either way, the Jazz's 88-85 victory over the Blazers on Sunday gives new life to a team many mistook for dead — so much so that the Delta Center wasn't even filled to capacity for Game 4 of the second-round, best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series that Portland now leads 3-1.
"We gave them a win today," Portland's Scottie Pippen said, "but we haven't given them any confidence."
The Jazz, naturally, beg to differ and have reason to do so after finally beating a team that in the first three games of the series had won by 18 or more.
Utah got 27 points and eight rebounds from Karl Malone, 18 points and nine assists from John Stockton, and 12 points, 11 boards and one heckuva emotional lift from starting center Olden Polynice, who played a whopping 39 minutes while helping hold Blazers center Arvydas Sabonis to just 6 points.
That, a key Armen Gilliam free throw with 6.7 seconds remaining and a failed third-option 3-point try at the buzzer by Portland's Greg Anthony were enough to shield Utah from the indignity of being swept, something that has never happened to the Jazz in a seven-game playoff series.
"Facing elimination," said Polynice, whose play kept backup center Greg Ostertag benched for the entire game, "you don't want to go down like that."
What Utah did to right itself was turn up the emotion, step up the defense and give up 15 fewer points than the Blazers averaged in Games 1-3.
"Defensively we were better," Stockton said. "The desire was there to get it done as a group, and not care who scored on us individually but what the final score was.
"And I think that helped," Stockton added. "I think guys helped each other at the risk of their man getting open, and that's an important part of us when we play well."
It is something that was previously absent for the Jazz this series but was present from the start on Sunday.
"This is the first time," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "we've tried to play them a little more defensively rather than going out and trying to outscore them."
Of course, the Jazz did have some help — perhaps not as much as Pippen suggested, but some nonetheless.
"They missed shots, which always makes it look like you're playing better defense," Sloan said of the Blazers, who hit a series-low 37.5 percent from the field.
The Jazz never trailed after the first four minutes of the opening quarter and had their lead up to as many as 8 when Stockton hit the second of two free-throws to make it 52-44 with 53.1 seconds remaining in the first half.
Utah ran its 5-point halftime lead (54-49) up to 11 when Malone hit a couple of free throws with 2:27 to go in the third quarter, but the Blazers had it back down to 1 (81-80) after Brian Grant dunked 2 of his team-high 20 points with 4:34 left.
It was then that the Jazz showed that character counts for something, after all. "Pride was on the line," reserve guard Jacque Vaughn said.
It showed for the Jazz as Malone hit a 22-foot jumper and two free throws, and Bryon Russell, who finished with 11 to give Utah four in double figures, dunked (barely) off the baseline to make it 87-80.
But Portland answered with 2 from Rasheed Wallace, a pair of free throws by Grant and 1-of-2 from the line by Steve Smith, whose first rattled out after he was fouled by Polynice while chasing after the rebound of a layup that Russell missed with 16.9 seconds to go.
Polynice was replaced by Gilliam, who, after having received a lengthy pass from Stockton as the Jazz tried to run down the clock, was fouled by Smith with 6.7 seconds left. Stockton regretted making the pass so soon, fearing that Gilliam — who was open but had played only four minutes in the fourth — might be cold at the line.
Gilliam did miss the first, not surprising considering that the Jazz failed to convert 11of 34 free throws — including five misses by Russell and two by Jeff Hornacek, who with only nine misses all season was the NBA's runaway free-throw shooting leader in 1999-2000.
"We didn't shoot that well from the line," said Gilliam, who did make his second to give the Jazz their 3-point lead at 88-85. "But everything else, I thought, we did pretty good."
Perhaps the Jazz did nothing better, though, than play defense the way they did, especially on Portland's last-gasp effort to force overtime.
"We thought Greg (Anthony) might have a shot on the first pick, on the second pick me, and on the third Scottie," said Smith, who eventually wound up passing to Anthony for a last-second shot from the right corner that missed the mark. "We had to go to our third option, and we got a good look at it. He just missed it."
What can you do, Anthony suggested.
"We executed well, and Steve (Smith) was going to have an opportunity, or I (would), and they defended it pretty well," he said. "But we still had an opportunity.
"That's basketball. It's hit or miss, and you have to live with that," Anthony added. "It's disappointing, but you tip your hat to them. They played extremely well, they showed a lot of courage and a lot of pride."
If you believe the Jazz, they had no choice but to play that way. If you believe at least one Blazer, it didn't matter anyway.
"We didn't have a chance to win this game," Pippen said, "with the way we played."
Either way, the Jazz are alive again. What they do with it, you best believe, is up to them.
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com