The Los Angeles players and coaching staff slowly left the floor at halftime facing a 12-point deficit and seemingly in trouble.
They came back a different team.
After going just 1 of 10 on 3-pointers in the opening half, the Lakers made three straight 3s — two by Ariza — to start the second half, and when Bynum made two free throws with 5:58 left in the quarter Los Angeles was up 55-54, its first lead since 8-7.
Odom dropped another 3, Orlando’s J.J. Redick matched it and the Lakers forward made a layup to give Los Angeles a 63-61 lead.
On Orlando’s next possession, Howard grabbed a rebound just outside the lane that Bryant wanted more. Reaching in, he tore the ball from Superman’s powerful grip and then broke free from his Olympic teammate, who grabbed him around the waist.
Bryant, Fisher and the Lakers, shooting for redemption after losing to Boston in last year’s finals, wouldn’t be denied.
Comeback commandos in these playoffs, the Magic now must put together their biggest rally.
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Given little chance against Cleveland, they toppled King James in six games and wrecked the Kobe-LeBron dream finals.
They didn’t come close to matching their record 63 percent shooting effort in Game 3 and now must beat the Lakers three straight to win it all.
“This is the toughest one because it puts us down two games and on the brink of elimination,” Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said.
Notes: Among the celebrities on hand: Tiger Woods, Dwyane Wade and Hulk Hogan. Hogan came up from behind and scared the unsuspecting Woods. ... Bryant (707) passed Dennis Johnson (676) for 16th place on the finals scoring list. Next up is Bob Pettit (709).
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
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