Mark Jackson’s view: Lakers make the plays

Mark Jackson played in the 2000 NBA Finals for the Indiana Pacers against the Lakers, but his most stirring performance in 17 NBA seasons might have been helping the Clippers make the playoffs twice. Jackson is now a game analyst for ABC and ESPN and is serving as a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel.

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The history of this Magic team all season long is that it’s well-coached and the players are resilient.

They have a lot of fight and have been able to bounce back every time they’ve faced adversity. I don’t think they have any quit in them.

And they’ve been able to win without Dwight Howard. This is a team that’s not going to quit. So I think it’ll be a hard-fought ballgame in Game 5.

Game 4 was a tough and disappointing loss. The Magic has to be frustrated because it didn’t make plays and didn’t execute. But at the same time, you can twist that and say, “We had ‘em.”

The problem is you don’t want to say that too much because then you’ll be on vacation and the Lakers will have all the jewelry and they won’t want to hear what you could have done.

I don’t think inexperience was a factor at all. Howard misses free throws and people say, “inexperience.” Well, Kobe Bryant goes five for 10 and it’s just a bad shooting night. The Lakers just made the plays in Game 4.

Since Game 5 of the Denver Nuggets series, the Lakers have put together an outstanding run.

They are playing the way people expected them to play, and now they’re on the verge of winning the whole thing. It’s a tremendous lesson because here’s a team that has responded.

It’s about having one of the greatest coaches in professional sports history in Phil Jackson and having a great leader and the best player in Bryant. They’re playing with a sense of urgency and raising the stakes.

Win, lose or draw Phil is always in the discussion of one of the greatest coaches in sports history. You can’t minimize what he has done for basketball. He has been incredible, and when you talk about Kobe he’s already in the discussion, once again. The legacy of both of those guys is already cemented. Kobe is in the discussion with Michael Jordan -- that’s my belief.

How many people would be satisfied with what they’ve done? They continue to drive, to add on.

Alonzo Mourning is trying to sell a book with his comment that Kobe is really doing the coaching, not Phil Jackson. You can’t take anything away from what Phil has done. It’s actually harder to coach great players than to coach one great player.

I’ve played with a bunch of great players and there is some high maintenance included. I like the response that Phil Jackson had to Mourning’s comments. Don’t bring yourself down to that. Play with it. Yeah, so what? I sit there and watch Kobe. And . . . don’t we all?

I like the response because ultimately coaching is done in practice every day. You should have a team that’s prepared where you don’t have to do the yelling and screaming. Phil Jackson has done an outstanding job of allowing his team to find its way through adversity.