The Orlando Magic are in a position to make basketball history.

Although the Orlando Magic are down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, they are in a unique position to make basketball history.

Albeit a very uneasy position.

No team in the history of the NBA has won the title after going down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series.

The Magic have an opportunity to become the first team to do so if they can win three-in-a-row against the Los Angeles Lakers, beginning with Game 5.

The game is the Magic-men's last at the Amway Arena, but the Magic believe that they can beat the odds and take part in a ring ceremony on opening night next season in the building.

"That's what we're fixing to do, make history," shooting guard Courtney Lee said. "No team's ever done it before, so that's what we want to do."

Lee has a world of confidence for a rookie ... a rookie who is guarding Kobe Bryant in a survival game, no less.

He was jokingly asked if he had packed his bags for L.A., where Games 6 and 7 would be played, if necessary. He thinks they're necessary.

"I'm going to do that when I go home, yeah," Lee said Saturday, straight-faced, not playing along with the gag.

Lee has learned the art of swagger in his first season from a cocksure, slightly cuckoo bunch of teammates and a coach who all refuse to look at deficits as deterrents.

"Right now," small forward Hedo Turkoglu said, "I'm just happy to be in this situation."

See what we mean? The Magic have an unusual way of looking at things wrong side up.

"I am happy, because it's a good time to show our character as a group. It's a good time right now," Turkoglu said. "We're a good team. We've bounced back from a lot of difficulties, so this is a good one to learn from."

Yes, this bounce-back would be the biggest of all bounce-backs.

Coach Stan Van Gundy has reached the point where being asked if his team can again come back "gets tiresome," adding that there's already "a list of what they've come back from."

The list includes winning 59 games despite all-star point guard Jameer Nelson's February shoulder injury; falling behind in playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics; the LeBron James' Game 2 "dagger," as Van Gundy calls it, in the Cleveland series; and finally, winning the franchise's first-ever Finals game after trailing the Lakers 2-0.

The Magic's season might now be counted in hours, minutes and seconds, their memorable postseason hanging on mere ticks on the shot-clock with the ball in Kobe's hands. They might be spotting the Lakers 14 championship banners and a Hall of Fame player, but they've developed a defiance to go with their uncanny resiliency.

Tony Battie: "I know they are not celebrating on our court. We're going to L.A. to bang this thing out."

Rashard Lewis: "We don't want to see them win a championship, period. Regardless if it's on our floor or if it's in L.A. We didn't come to the Finals just to be in the Finals. Our goal is to win the NBA championship.

"We're down 3-1, but we're not going to give up. We can't lay down. We do that, we might as well forfeit and just give 'em the rings instead of coming out to play. No, we're going to fight, and who knows what can happen? Anything can happen."

The Magic have already witnessed that part of it, from Lee's alley-oop hoop gone awry in Game 2 to Derek Fisher's game-tying 3-pointer in Game 4, defining moments of overtime losses that could haunt.

The basketball part for the Magic goes beyond making shots, feeding Dwight Howard and needing Turkoglu to control the offense. They need to be able to close out games like the Lakers do.

Then the Magic can take the first step toward winning it the hard way, in L.A., and yes, rewriting NBA history.

"It would make a heck of a story," Battie said.

Or fairytale.