ShareThisWhen they walked off the Amway Arena court Thursday night, the Los Angeles Lakers clenched their fists, sweat dripping from every pore, and celebrated an overtime win that didn't give them an NBA championship, but sure seemed like it.
They were down early, and down late, facing an energized and hopeful Orlando team that was gaining traction and fuel from a raucous sellout crowd.
The Lakers had a truckload of chances to lose this game, but somehow stole it instead. A big rally. A break. An improbable shot.
Kobe Bryant said this week that it isn't that difficult to win on the road, not a big deal. He may want to rethink that.
Thursday night the Lakers clawed, scraped and dug exceedingly deep. It took their gutsiest effort of the postseason, their most memorable road game of the spring.
When the Lakers make it official sometime in the next week -- maybe as early as Sunday -- this will be the signature win. A come-from-behind -- then come-from-behind again -- victory over a dangerous, but self-destructing Orlando team.
"We really don't want to talk about it," said Coach Phil Jackson of the impending title. "He (Derek Fisher) was just reminding these guys of the 2000 championship when we went up 3-1 and Indiana came back and trounced us in the fifth game.
"(Orlando) is a proud team. They don't get this far unless they're a game team, so we have to be very prepared."
We weren't sure the Lakers were a game team, until Thursday. We know they're talented. Toughness? They don't seem to need it much. But they scrounged some up in Game 4.
There was the third-quarter rally that turned the game, from a 12-point halftime deficit into a four-point lead -- just when it looked as if the Magic's Finals party was going to spill into the streets of Orlando, a 2-2 tie.
Instead, the Lakers ripped it away, Jackson making a stand, playing the whole third quarter with his starters, plus Lamar Odom. There would be nothing routine about the last 17 minutes, either, the teams trading big shots and big hits, the play getting nasty for the first time in the series.
When Bryant ripped a rebound away from Dwight Howard, almost taking the Magic center's wrists with him in the process, Howard turned and bear hugged Kobe from behind, drawing a foul. The two gold-medal teammates jawed at each other walking up the court.
With 11.1 seconds left in the game, the Magic had a three-point lead and Howard at the foul line to shoot two foul shots, to clinch. Instead, the Lakers were gifted a pair of misses from Howard, then Fisher summoned up his most memorable shot since the 0.4 stunner in San Antonio in 2004. Not that hard?
Fish's rainbow three-pointer with 4.6 seconds left put it in overtime, and his second three-pointer with 31.3 left in the OT put the Lakers ahead to stay. Just another road win?
For his part, Bryant was less than a road warrior. He made several big shots in the fourth quarter, but he took a lot, too, hitting just 11 of 31 attempts overall. He was lucky on this night that Fisher, Trevor Ariza and Pau Gasol were up to it.
"It's amazing," Gasol said. "A crazy game. We had to work so, so hard. We put everything out there and fought so hard -- a great reward, winning the game."
A road win. Not easy. And, yes, a big deal.
(Contact Gregg Patton at gpatton(at)PE.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.
