Los Angeles- Deron Williams turned a bad night into a great one. Williams nailed a fade-away jumper from the right side with 2.2 seconds left, to give the Jazz a thrilling 88-86 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night.

The victory pulled the Jazz within 2-1 of the Lakers in their Western Conference first-round playoff series with Game Four at Utah on Saturday.

"I had to make up for horrible play all night," said Williams, who finished with 13 points on three-of-seven shooting along with nine assists. "I'm glad I hit the shot."

Kobe Bryant, who finished with 18 points on just 5-of-24 shooting, had a chance to pull out the win, but missed a straight away three-pointer as time expired.

Carlos Boozer scored 23 points and tied a franchise playoff record with 22 rebounds for Utah, which outscored its guests 28-18 in the final quarter to avoid falling into an insurmountable 3-0 series hole.

"Now we're back in the series," Boozer said. "We put a little fear in them, and now we have to come back and back this up Saturday."

Lamar Odom had 21 points with 14 rebounds, Spaniard Pau Gasol collected 20 and nine boards for the Lakers, who fell to 2-10 at Utah in the post-season..

"Usually we find a way to win these types of games, especially leading by eight in the fourth quarter," Odom said. "It's the first one in a long time that we let one slip away."

The Lakers carried a 68-60 lead into the final 12 minutes, but the Jazz rallied to tie and take an 86-84 lead with 16.9 seconds as Boozer spun away from Gasol and powered down a left-handed dunk.

Gasol countered with a dunk at the other end off a feed from Bryant to knot the score at 86 with 11.7 ticks remaining. Following a timeout, Williams drove the middle, but dribbled to the right side, where he launched his 12-foot jumper over Derek Fisher to send the crowd into a frenzy.

"It was a pick and roll between me and Booz," Williams said. "But I said let me go one-on-one. That's what we did."

Elsewhere: Boston Celtics 107, Chicago Bulls 86 Paul Pierce Pierce scored 24 points, Rajon Rondo added 20 with 11 rebounds and the Celtics crushed the Bulls to take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

After splitting a pair of last-second contests in Boston, the Celtics blew out the Bulls in the "Windy City." by holding their hosts to 37 per cent field goal shooting and forcing 22 turnovers.

"We felt the most encouraging thing through the first two games was that we hadn't played our game yet, with a full game of defence," Pierce said. "Tonight we did that. When we play defence like that we're tough to beat."

Ray Allen had 18 points, Glen Davis collected 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists and six steals for Boston, which led 59-37 at the break and by as many as 34 in the second half

Ben Gordon scored 15, John Salmons and Kirk Hinrich added 14 for Chicago, which will look to knot the series at home in Game Four on Sunday.

"We just had a terrible game," said Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro. "We weren't moving the basketball."

Dallas Mavericks 88, San Antonio Spurs 67 German wunderkind Dirk Nowitzki scored 20 points, Josh Howard added 17 and the Mavericks' defence shut down the Spurs, to grab a 2- 1 lead in their Western Conference opening-round playoff series.

"I like the way we played at the defensive end, the score really doesn't matter," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after the rout.

"We have to maintain the same kind of mindset we came out with tonight, on Saturday."

The Mavs held the Spurs to a dismal 32 per cent field goal shooting, and a franchise-record for fewest points in a playoff game.

"They kicked our butts every which way but loose," he said. "We didn't play well at either end of the court, and they had a lot to do with it."

Dallas raced to a 46-30 halftime lead. When a 16-1 run pushed it to 26 at the 7:42 mark, Spurs Popovich pulled his starters, including Tony Parker and fellow-All-Star Tim Duncan in effort to rest them for Game Four on Saturday.

"I didn't see where we were going to get back in that one," Popovich said.

Parker led the Spurs with just 12 points, after scoring 38 in Game Two, while Duncan finished with four.

"We didn't bring energy for whatever reason," Parker said. "We have to play with a lot more energy. That's it."