(My Sportsbook) - Resiliency has been the Orlando Magic's mantra this postseason.

Stan Van Gundy's team suffered heartbreaking loses against Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland earlier in the playoffs but always had the answer.

Now, after a second overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, the Magic will have to become the most resilient team in NBA history in order to stave off elimination tonight at Amway Arena and come back to win the franchise's first NBA championship.

The Lakers took a commanding 3-1 advantage in the series on Thursday when veteran guard Derek Fisher sank a pair of clutch three-pointers, one to force overtime and another in the extra session to give Los Angeles the lead for good, as the Lakers overcame a 12-point halftime deficit to earn a 99-91 triumph.

On 29 other occasions a team has trailed 3-1 in The Finals. None of them has ever overcome the deficit.

"We know what's ahead of us," Orlando's star center Dwight Howard said. "We know the situation that we're in. We won't stop believing."

Kobe Bryant, who is searching for his fourth championship and first without former teammate Shaquille O'Neal, led the way in Game 4 with 32 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as LA captured a hard-fought victory in its quest for a 15th NBA championship.

Meanwhile, coach Phil Jackson now stands on the doorstep of a record 10th championship as an NBA coach. Jackson, who was fined $25,000 by the league on Saturday for publicly criticizing the officials in Game 4, will surpass the legendary Red Auerbach for the most titles in history with a win tonight.

"They say it takes four games to win and I just don't want to even talk about anything like that until there's a done deed," Jackson said.

Trevor Ariza, who was held scoreless in the first half Thursday, caught fire down the stretch, burying a trio of three-pointers and ending with 16 points. Pau Gasol, who battled foul trouble, also came up big late, finishing with 16 points and 10 boards.

The Lakers have now followed up each loss in this year's postseason with a win, compiling a 7-0 record in such a spot.

"On a championship run you're going to have moments where you just make big plays, and tonight was one of them," remarked Bryant after Game 4. "The guys stepped up. That's what the journey is about. You've got to have guys step up and make those big plays."

Orlando's second-half letdown spoiled a superb performance by Howard, who posted 16 points, 21 rebounds and a Finals record nine blocks. The All-Star did, however, commit seven of the team's 19 turnovers and sank just 6-of-14 at the free throw line with some untimely misses.

Hedo Turkoglu hit 8-of-13 field goals for a team-high 25 points and Mickael Pietrus logged substantial minutes off the bench, scoring 15 points, but missed a potential game-winning shot in regulation off an inbounds play with 4.6 ticks left.

Rashard Lewis, instrumental in Orlando's success throughout its playoff run, was just 2-of-10 for six points.

"This is the toughest one -- it puts us down two games and on the brink of elimination -- obviously everybody very, very disappointed," said Van Gundy. "The emotions are very raw. I didn't say much of anything afterwards."

The Magic were in a position to even the series and had an 87-84 edge with just 10.8 seconds remaining in Game 4. With their season hanging in the balance, Van Gundy made the critical decision not to foul before the Lakers attempted a three-pointer.

Left virtually unguarded, Fisher got the ball in the back court, calmly dribbled up the right side and buried a three over Jameer Nelson with 4.6 seconds left. Much like Game 2, LA then dominated the overtime period to take the comfortable 3-1 series lead.

Van Gundy was sick after the game over the decision not to foul and turn the final seconds into a free-throw shooting contest.

"It was my decision with 11 seconds not to foul," Van Gundy said. "Yes I regret it now, but only in retrospect. I mean, normally to me 11 (seconds) is too early. You foul, they make two free throws, [they] cut it to one [and] you're still at six or seven seconds."

Solid logic but specious since Jackson and his staff made one whopper of a mistake coming out of the timeout that should have made Van Gundy's decision to foul a no-brainer.

Jackson thought the Magic had a foul to give, meaning his team would get the ball out of bounds again after a foul, taking precious seconds off the clock. They didn't.

The poor bookkeeping by PJack's staff resulted in Jackson instructing his team to take the ball out in their backcourt to create space to hopefully avoid a foul that wasn't coming. By taking the ball in the backcourt, it took the Lakers time to get into scoring position. .

If Van Gundy had picked up on Jackson's miscue and ordered his players to foul, the Lakers likely would have had a pair of free throws with under six seconds to go, making things awfully tight even if Orlando, which hit just 59 percent (22-for-37) from the charity stripe in the game, came up empty at the other end.

"That one will haunt me forever," Van Gundy said. "When they took it full court (shaking his head)... I'll have to go back and look at that."

Even Van Gundy's bother, ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy, criticized his brother's decision on the television broadcast.

LA, which won the first two games of the set before dropping Game 3, is a gaudy 38-1 in its franchise history when they have taken the first two games of a seven-game series.

The early 2-0 advantage for the Lakers also marked the 13th time and the fifth straight season in which the home team has won the first two games of The Finals since the NBA went to a 2-3-2 format in 1985. In 11 of the previous 12 instances, the home team winning both Game 1 and Game 2 has gone on to win the NBA Championship with the lone exception coming in 2006, when Dallas won the first two games at home but lost the next four straight to Miami.

In NBA Finals history, a team with a 2-0 edge has triumphed in The Finals 31 times, with only three teams ever coming back from an 0-2 deficit to win the title, the 1969 Boston Celtics (against LA), the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers and the 2006 Heat.

Meanwhile, Jackson is a perfect 43-0 in the postseason when his team wins Game 1 of a set.

Game 6, if necessary, will be back in Los Angeles on Tuesday.