Wow.

On the strength of 31 points, 8 assists and 5 steals from Deron Williams and the usual beastly efficiency of Carlos Boozer (can we all agree that his nickname should be “Beast”? I keep seeing him called a “beast” everywhere, seems like a natural fit), the Jazz blew away the Spurs in the second half of Game 3 to set up a possible series-tying Game 4 on Monday.

We expect this from D-Will and Booz. They’ve been doing it at this level all year — and the national media is finally starting to notice. The love was flowing from the ABC announcing crew of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy tonight. (Van Gundy better give some respect — we already beat his team and lost him his job.) It’s really gratifying to hear everyone realize that the Jazz DIDN’T make a mistake drafting Williams over Chris Paul. The Jazz drafted the better player. The fans have known it all year. Everyone else knows it now, too. (Peep the highlight clip below at about 0:50 where D-Will broke Jacque Vaughn’s ankles. Filthy. Thanks to lagoonfreek for the link.)

But tonight’s game ball goes to the Jazz bench, who hung tough to keep it close in the second quarter (finally, a second quarter where we don’t get outscored by double digits) and then turned on the jets to destroy San Antonio’s hopes of a sweep (it will be very nice to shove that in the faces of all my colleagues who predicted a sweep). Paul Millsap scored eight points in a four-minute span in the second half. Gordan Giricek kept us in the game early with some timely shooting. Matt Harpring seemed to break out of his recent funk a bit with a strong three-point play in the second quarter that sent Tim Duncan to the bench with his third foul. For crap’s sake, we got seven points from Jarron Collins. Much respect to all of you, guys.

The key to this game was Duncan’s early foul trouble. Without his presence anchoring the San Antonio defense, Williams was able to get into the paint much more easily, Boozer had to fight less for rebounds, and Millsap was open for back-door plays. It changed the whole complexion of the game (as foul trouble is wont to do — remember Games 2 and 3 of the Golden State series?). Props must also be given to Mehmet Okur, who dropped a goose egg on the scoreboard but played solid defense yet again (as he has so many times this postseason) and hassled Duncan into several turnovers. Much like in the Houston series against Yao Ming, Memo is probably killing himself on the defensive end and isn’t able to get open quite as much offensively. But I don’t mind the zilch as long as that defense continues. As tonight proved, we have other weapons.

Possibly the best thing about tonight’s win? The Jazz won by 26 points, and they STILL haven’t played their best basketball in this series. Andrei Kirilenko has been a non-factor, putting in only two points tonight. Add that to the aforementioned schneid Memo posted, and that’s over 25 points on average that we missed. And we didn’t need them at all. This Jazz team is that deep, and has that much potential. I can’t even believe how much we’re capable of.

Here’s the problem: this Game 3 win could mean one of two things, and the Jazz have lived through both in this postseason. It could mean, as in the Houston series, that we’ve turned the corner — we’ve solved the Spur equation, we’re ready to play tough in Texas, and we could steal Game 5 or 7 if it gets that far. Or it could mean, as in the Golden State series, that we had one good game but we’re still not the better team and will lose in five games.

Game 4 will show what tonight’s game really meant. But I’m happy right now knowing that the silver-and-black can put away their brooms. We’re not done yet.