ORLANDO, Fla. -- Dwight Howard has his bags packed.

Showing off an it's-not-over-yet smile and a confident attitude, the Orlando Magic center said yesterday that the NBA Finals will be headed back to Los Angeles. The Magic are down, 3-1, to the Lakers but want to "make history," starting with Game 5 at 9 tonight in their final home game of the best season in franchise history.

"You want me to get up here and say the season is going to be over tomorrow? That's not what anybody should do or anybody should think," Howard said. "I believe that we're going to be going back to L.A."

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy wanted to make sure his team didn't lose hope.

So he called players in for a rare day-after-game meeting Friday to make sure his team had moved on from its Game 4 meltdown. Van Gundy, who hardly ever gives speeches or motivational pep talks, delivered one at the meeting about Greg LeMond's come back in the 1989 Tour de France he hopes will light a spark.

"He had come from behind and then taken the lead and then lost it on one of the late stages, and people started to write him off," Van Gundy said. "And at the end of the stage he looked beaten, and he and his wife were talking when they left, and they asked his wife what he had said.

"And he said, 'It'll just make the story all that much better when I come back and win it all.'"

The Magic's challenge might be just as difficult.

But Van Gundy doesn't want his players to believe they can win Game 5 unless they first believe they can still win the championship. That would take a record rally -- no team in 29 previous tries has won the title after being down 3-1 in the finals.

"I think when you're in this situation, the key thing is do you still believe you can win the championship?" Van Gundy said.

"If you don't think you can go to L.A. and win the championship, then even though you're saying one game at a time, it's pretty easy to let go if things aren't going well."

With LeBron James possibly headlining a stellar class, the 2010 free agency season has been nicknamed the "Summer of LeBron."

There apparently will be no "Summer of Kobe" next month.

Kobe Bryant can become a free agent after this season, but he said his status "won't be an issue." Asked if he could imagine playing for anyone other than the Los Angeles Lakers next year, Bryant simply said, "No." Though he never said he wouldn't become a free agent, Bryant acted as if he wasn't even aware of his option to put himself on the market in July.

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy was happy to learn that Tommy Heinsohn was honored with the inaugural Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award. Heinsohn coached the Boston Celtics to two NBA titles after his Hall of Fame playing career. The award is named after Daly, who died last month from cancer.