His return had nothing to do with Basketball. And that, as much as his history of making big shots, is the reason he's so beloved by his teammates.

"He's an incredible person, as well as a Basketball player," F Lamar Odom said. "He puts being a good man first, and that's important, especially for the chemistry in the locker room and things like that."

Make no mistake, the stuff he does on the floor is crucial, too.

The Lakers weren't forgetting it when Fisher was struggling in the playoffs this year, and they certainly aren't now after he added another chapter to his legacy of late-game heroics in Game 4 of the Finals.

Fisher hit a tying 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left in regulation, then made one that gave the Lakers the lead for good with 31 seconds left in overtime of a 99-91 win that gave them a 3-1 lead over the Magic .

The 34-year-old guard had missed his first five 3-pointers of the game, and he has missed far more than he has made in this postseason. And though critics have seen a player who has looked washed up, the Lakers see one they always believe will come through for them.

"He's not blessed with great speed," coach Phil Jackson said. "He's a good athlete, but he's not particularly fast. But he has a certain sense about him, knows what's going on on the floor, can organize a team, (is) not afraid to go away from Kobe (Bryant) when sometimes Kobe is asking for the ball and he knows better, and I need a guard like him to do that."

Jackson, Bryant and Fisher are the lone remnants from the Lakers' three titles earlier this decade. In 2004 Fisher went off to Golden State and then was traded to Utah.

He asked the Jazz to release him in 2007 because his daughter Tatum had cancer and he wanted to move to a bigger city to have better treatment options. He re-signed with the team that drafted him in 1996 from Arkansas-Little Rock.

Tatum is healthy now, and Fisher is content with his job.

"The guys on this team are just unbelievable," he said. "They ride with me, good or bad, so I'll just continue to want to really thank them or reward them by continuing to show the confidence that I need to show when I'm out there on the floor."

No harm, just a foul: The league reviewed Magic G/F Mickael Pietrus' push into the back of Lakers F Pau Gasol as Gasol completed a dunk with 3.4 seconds left in overtime and decided Friday that no further action was needed besides the flagrant foul Pietrus was assessed.

"I wasn't trying to be a jerk," Pietrus said. "It was just a hard foul, and I love Pau; we've played so many times together in Europe. That's how it is."

on third thought : Despite saying differently after the game, Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said he believes he did do the right thing by not fouling on the Lakers' last possession in regulation with 10.8 seconds left and a three-point lead, though Fisher's shot tied it.

Van Gundy basically put the blame on 6-foot G Jameer Nelson for not guarding the 6-1 Fisher tight enough. "Jameer had one responsibility on the play," he said, "and that was to not give Derek Fisher a look at a 3. I question whether we made that clear enough or could have told him to play the play a different way. But I thought we were pretty clear on that."

misc.: Apart from speaking with the media and a brief Lakers team meeting, both teams took Friday off. Game 4 had a 10.9 overnight rating for ABC, the highest for the series. The four games are the most-viewed prime time programs since the American Idol finale in May.