Cool, collected coach Jackson shows up his critics again

You see him sitting there on his extra high chair and it's easy to think of someone above it all, royalty looking down from a throne. He doesn't stalk the space in front of the Lakers' bench and stomp his feet. He doesn't run up and down the sidelines chasing referees and flapping his wings like an angry rooster.

You watch him from the opening tip to the final buzzer, and see the range of emotions on his face run from impassive to poker-faced to deadpan to blank, and it's easy to make the same mistake as Alonzo Mourning.

Phil Jackson just shows up.

Usually at the victory podium.

He was back there again on Thursday night after a 99-91 overtime victory that pulled the Lakers within a win of another title and Jackson to the cusp of his 10th NBA championship, which would break the tie with Red Auerbach as the all-time leader.

Yet to Mourning, the former All-Star and member of the champion Miami Heat in 2006, Jackson might as well have stayed at home and washed his hair for all the contribution he's made to what the Lakers have done. "To tell you the truth, Phil doesn't have to do anything but call timeouts," Mourning said. "Kobe is the facilitator. He's the one driving the mission of this particular team right now.

"I think Phil is just showing up, to tell you the truth, and Kobe is doing all the work to make this team successful."

It's an image that Jackson has never resisted while adding to his gaudy jewelry collection, and that only fuels the misperceptions.

How many occasions are there when the star-studded crowd at the Staples Centers is ready to explode right out of its designer jeans as things go wrong, yet Jackson doesn't let them see him sweat and won't even get up out of his seat to call a timeout?

Thursday night, there were the Lakers' players, answering questions about being 48 minutes from achieving their season-long goal. Yet nobody seemed to notice that it was Jackson who drew the right stuff out of them when they were trailing by a dozen points at halftime. The Lakers have not lost back-to-back games at any time in the Playoffs. Following each of their seven losses, Jackson has coaxed them and pushed them and they've responded with wins by an average of nearly 16 points.

There was Derek Fisher after the Game 4 win, taking the bows and accepting all of the post-game accolades for his pair of killer 3-pointers at the end of regulation and late in overtime. But somebody had to make the choice to leave Fisher in the rotation and the starting lineup. He's shooting just 38 percent in the Playoffs and only 27 percent from behind the arc. He was 0-for-5 before the fourth quarter Thursday night.

"That Houston series was really difficult for Fish," Jackson said. "He was going against a young, quick, lithe guard (Aaron Brooks) and he had difficulty corralling him. Then he went up against Chauncey Billups in the Denver series. But he was able to hang in there against all of the adversity and stood up under all of it. Now he's here in The Finals and he hits those two shots. There's nothing surprising to us about that."

Neither is there anything surprising that Jackson wasn't surprised. Because for all of the knocks as a figurehead who simply manages superstar talent such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, Jackson always has forged connections with the players up and down the roster.

While other coaches can be seen gyrating and turning their heads purple with rage, Jackson always has preferred working his magic in the backroom and standing out of the spotlight. After all, the audience is supposed to be watching the puppets on the stage, not the master pulling the strings.

Jackson's genius always has been in how he gets his message across, using everything from private meetings to massage egos to clever manipulations of the media. He still hands out the occasional book for a player to read or will edit in movie clips -- it was "Hellboy2" for Game 4 --- to drive home a theme in a video session.

He rarely barks out commands to his troops. He has virtually turned making a point without opening his mouth into an art form. He's like the duck that appears so serene on top of the water, but is paddling his feet furious beneath the surface.

With Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom knee-deep in foul trouble from the first half, Jackson had to get creative in Game 4 using combinations that included D.J. Mbenga, Josh Powell and Sasha Vujacic.

When Orlando's Dwight Howard missed his two free throws near the end of regulation, Jackson, his Lakers down by three points, chose to inbound the ball and have the Lakers go the length of the court. He figured that an inbounds pass at midcourt would likely have drawn an immediate foul.

Going all the way down the court, the Lakers were able to get the ball in to Bryant, then to Ariza and then to Fisher.

"I do think some of it the credit does belong outside of myself, to my teammates, to Phil," Fisher said. "Just the way that he's willing to stick with certain people that he believes can help get the job done. It's not always about statistically what is this guy going to bring to the table.

"A lot of coaches won't have that kind of faith, confidence, that kind of perseverance to figure he'll be rewarded in the end. Phil doesn't have to say anything to me. We've been together a long time, been through a lot of games. We understand."

Even if Alonzo Mourning doesn't. As Woody Allen once said, 80 percent of success is showing up.