But you can't, not only because millions watched your nightmare on live TV, but someone also recorded it.

Now, imagine popping in that DVD and being forced to watch your worst day again.

Since Thursday, that's what the Lakers have had to go through after losing a 24-point lead and, eventually, Game 4. Yesterday, coach Phil Jackson tried to give his team a little respite and relaxation by canceling practice and making his team watch only the first half -- the good half. Today, however, the Lakers popped in the second half -- the half they started with an 18-point lead only to have a six-point deficit when the final horn sounded.

The Lakers' review of that had not changed.

"Disgusting," Lakers forward Vladimir Radmanovic said.

Blowing a 20-point lead with 18 minutes to go in a Finals game will turn more than a few stomachs. But the Lakers' video post mortem of Game 4 wasn't meant to induce nausea, they used it to dissect the many mistakes that killed them. Call it C.S.I. L.A.. Lakers forward Pau Gasol diagnosed that the Lakers had problems on both ends of the floor.

"[We had] too many breakdowns offensively," Gasol said. "Bad passing, bad execution, made too many mistakes that led to transition points, too many layups, too many easy looks to Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, who drove in the lane easily. We should not concede that.

"We didn't do a good job of attacking the ball or rotating on the shooters. Eddie House and James Posey got pretty good looks down the stretch, which they converted. Those are the things that were revealed."

Sasha Vujacic noted that watching the game tape was like picking at a wound that hadn't healed.

"It was very painful, no doubt about it," Vujacic said. "Watching it I'm like, 'What happened?' and it was frustrating."

"But they made great runs and they played better than we did in the second half. There's nothing else to do but win now. Win tomorrow and go from there."

Vujacic, who got burned late when Ray Allen blew by him with 14 seconds left for a game-sealing layup, was particularly hard on himself.

"I was frustrated because I made some very stupid mistakes, to be honest with you," Vujacic said, "and quite frankly they hurt us a little bit.

"But I learned from my mistakes, and I can't wait 'til tomorrow because it's going to be exciting."

Point guard Jordan Farmar admitted watching Game 4 again wasn't easy because the minor details reveal themselves.

"It was tough," Farmar said. "We made a few minor mistakes. Pau misses a little dunk that would have given us a 14-point lead, but we're still up 12 and they go down and hit a three.

"Now, instead of a 14-point lead, it goes to nine in one possession. And the game is managed differently because of the situation. So little plays throughout the second half really killed us."

As disappointed as they were with the results of Game 4, it seemed as if Friday's day off had given the young Lakers a chance to decompress and recharge. Kobe Bryant read Harry Potter to his daughters. Radmanovic relaxed with friends. Farmar went to his alma mater, UCLA, and played H-O-R-S-E with pals. Vujacic popped in a DVD of a different kind, 300 and then went to the Lakers' El Segundo practice facility and put himself through a tough workout.

Today the Lakers revealed they weren't thinking of the daunting and unprecedented task of digging out of a 3-1 Finals hole. They were just thinking of winning Game 5, because if they don't, there's no Game 6.

"If we start the season in training camp and you come to me and say we're going to give you three cracks to win the championship, I'm going to take that," Bryant said. "So I'm excited about this.

"This is not something we're down and out. This is still the series. We've got a big game tomorrow. We're going to be ready to play that, and then we're going to go from there. Look at it as college basketball. It's March Madness. It's the Elite Eight now. So we're ready to go." Meanwhile, the Celtics know they have a tough task ahead of them, especially with a motivated Bryant rarin' to go.

"This series is far from over," Brian Scalabrine said when talking about Bryant. "That guy is a monster."