There was no sense revisiting their historic collapse during the second half of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night. Living through it once was rough enough.

With that in mind, the Lakers' coaching staff went to work on restoring the team's damaged confidence during a video session. Coach Phil Jackson called off his scheduled practice and sat the players down to show them what worked so well for them en route to a 24-point lead midway through the second quarter.

Jackson did not want them dwelling on what went wrong during a horrendous second half that led to a 97-91 loss to the Boston Celtics, a defeat that left them on the brink of elimination. Boston leads the best-of-seven series three games to one, with Game 5 on Sunday.

"I told them the series is not over," Jackson said.

For the record, eight teams in league history have rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win a playoff series, but none has done it during the Finals.

"Everybody that feels like they did something they could have done to help the team and weren't able to help the team has to consider that," Jackson said. "That's what you mull as a coach over in your mind at 1 or 5 in the morning after a situation like that, what could have we done differently?

"But the other aspect is that you've got to give credit when credit is due."

Indeed, the Celtics played a huge role in the Lakers' demise. Paul Pierce's defense against Kobe Bryant was especially crucial in sparking Boston to the biggest comeback in the Finals since the league began keeping track of such things in 1971.

"We just wet the bed," Bryant said. "A nice big one, too. One of the ones you can't put a towel over. It was terrible."

Bryant scored only 17 points on 6-for-19 shooting, his lowest output of the playoffs so far. He had 22 points during a blowout victory in Game 3 against the Denver Nuggets in the first round and matched that total during a rout of the San Antonio Spurs in Game 2 of the Western Conference finals.

Bryant joked - at least it seemed like he was joking - that the only cure for a loss like the Lakers' defeat in Game 4 was to get stinking drunk. Jackson insisted he did not call off practice because his players nursed hangovers.

"No, I think that they looked clear-eyed for the most part," Jackson said. "They looked relatively clear-eyed. We watched some tape; we looked at the first half.

"Obviously, we were successful in the first half and did some things that got a lead for us, and I wanted to explain to them that they were the same ballclub, the same personnel that went out there in the second half, and if they can get that kind of a lead, they can maintain that kind of a game if they really put their minds to it."