From Shaq’s Twitter, a not so subtle reminder about his “master of panic” comment on SVG

`Congrats to you to phil jackson. When the general doesn’t panic the troops don’t panic. You are the greatest now.’

Derek Fisher on Kobe Bryant’s evolution as a player and a team leader: “He’s grown. He’s grown up. He’s doing everything that we could ever ask him to do in terms of leading the team and performing on the court during games, in practice, and trying to be the type of guy that guys will follow as opposed to just dominating performances by himself and then expecting everyone to catch up to him. He’s really done an unbelievable job getting everybody to believe and buy into what we were trying to do this year.”

Bryant on Pau Gasol: “I think the thing that helped us get to this level was the improvements that he made defensively. He did a terrific job defensively for us all year, and particularly in this series. Offensively, his capabilities are limitless. He’s a dominant post-up player, extremely versatile, makes great decisions, and obviously when we got him last year, that really took us to that next step.”

Lamar Odom on the experience of bouncing back from last year’s loss to Boston: “That’s exactly what it was, it was an experience, and usually experience makes you better at whatever it is, whether it’s on or off the court. We set a goal early in the training camp and that was to win the NBA championship. Every time we came in as a group, we left that group by saying, ‘1, 2, 3, ring.’ We set a goal and we attained it.”

Orlando’s Dwight Howard on the Lakers: “Kobe led the way, but I think Trevor (Ariza) and Lamar did an excellent job the whole series. Trevor, he stepped his game up. When he was on our team, he couldn’t shoot the ball as well as he can now. Now he’s one of the best 3-point shooters on their team. He’s slashing, scoring and playing great defense on (Hedo) Turkoglu, so I think he was probably the main reason, him and Lamar, for the championship.”

Here are a few details on the Lakers’ victory parade.

WHEN: Wednesday.

WHERE: Staples Center, starting at 11 a.m. and continuing down Figueroa to the Coliseum, where the celebration begins at noon.

Note: Only the first 95,000 will be invited into the stadium. Gates open at 9:30 a.m. Team and city officials will ride from the arena to the stadium in double-decker buses. Fans are asked to line Figueroa.

FOURTH QUARTER
Random thought: At what point would Chick Hearn put this one in the refrigerator? Let’s go with 8:19 remaining, when Bryant hit a 3-pointer to push the Lakers’ lead to 83-67. The period turned into a victory march as the Lakers avenged last year’s Boston debacle.
LAKERS 99, ORLANDO 86

THIRD QUARTER
Orlando came out with some expected post-halftime energy, and started with a 7-2 run to pull within 58-53, but Lamar Odom hit 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to start a 13-2 run. That put the Lakers up 71-55 and within 12 minutes of a championship.
LAKERS 76, ORLANDO 61

SECOND QUARTER
The Lakers trailed by five when Kobe Bryant drove the baseline and violently threw down a one-handed dunk. Two minutes later, the Lakers started a 16-0 run — Trevor Ariza scored seven of them — and built a 52-40 lead with three minutes remaining in the quarter.
LAKERS 56, ORLANDO 46

FIRST QUARTER
With a chance to close out a title, the Lakers decided to…feed Andrew Bynum? Bynum missed badly on his first six shots, which allowed the Magic to get out and run. Orlando took a 15-6 lead after five minutes but the Lakers absorbed the blow and kept it close.
ORLANDO 28, LAKERS 26

Lamar Odom sat in front of his locker stall, speaking to a few reporters tonight while performing a ritual he has performed since he first entered the NBA as a 19-year-old in 1999. It’s been expanded over the years, but it’s essentially the same. First, he wrote the address of the house he grew up in Queens on his sneakers. Then he jotted down “Grandma” for the woman who raised him. He wrote down the name of his mother, Cathy, who died when he wasn’t yet a teenage basketball sensation. He also wrote down the name of his son, Jayden, who died in his crib in the summer of 2007.

“I try to keep them close to me,” he said. “Every game.”

“Tonight’s a big one,” he added. “I might sleep with my shoes on, my jersey on, my whole uniform, like I’m 12 years old again.”

Odom said the bus ride to Amway Arena was about the same as it was before the Lakers faced the Boston Celtics in Game 6 of last year’s Finals. The mood of the team was intense, with little chatter among the players. He said he hoped the ride out of the arena would be radically different. After all, a group of Celtics fans tried to tip over the Lakers’ bus after Game 6. “They love their Celtics,” Odom said, without a trace of humor.

“At that point, I don’t think upset is the right word,” he said of the team’s reaction as fans rocked the bus. “We were down, in our own zone, some of us. Some of our family members had it pretty rough during that game. The fans here (in Orlando), they love their team, of course, but they have been respectful.”

Asked about the possibility of playing his final game with the Lakers tonight, Odom gave a quick answer about his impending free agency, saying, “Hopefully, we can keep the team together. The business of basketball usually takes place after the season is over, and I want to keep my focus on the game tonight.”

What’s the consensus? Do you guys think the Lakers will wrap it up tonight in Game 5? Or will the Orlando Magic regroup and force the series back to Staples Center for Game 6?

Phil Jackson and the Lakers were each fined $25,000 today by the NBA for the coach’s critical comments about the officiating in Game 4 of the Finals on Thursday. Jackson expressed his displeasure about the referees’ work during a television interview between the first and second quarters of the Lakers’ overtime victory over the Orlando Magic.