Lakers forward Lamar Odom, meeting with reporters at practice yesterday, is looking to rebound tonight in Game Five.

AP / Mark Avery

LOS ANGELES — While Celtics fans from coast to coast are shining the NBA championship trophy for their heroes, there is another team in the mix that is promising not to die quickly.

The Lakers returned to the practice floor yesterday and are vowing not to let the Celtics wrap up the NBA Finals on their home court. They want a victory tonight and a crack at winning the series in Boston this week.

A mental checkup is the key to the Lakers’ hopes. After blowing a 24-point to lose Game Four, the Lakers need to show they can stay tough when the Celtics make their expected charge sometime in Game Five tonight. A large dose of Kobe Bryant is a good place to start.

“The night that that we lost, it was tough obviously,” said Bryant. “I think the next day it became a matter of what are we going to do going forward because we’ve got to make a series out of this. We’ve got to take care of business (tonight). So what are we going to do? How am I going to get my teammates in the right frame of mind, make sure they’re energetic, and that’s what it’s been all about.”

And how are the Lakers coping with the 3-1 series deficit? “Everybody’s fine. Everybody is in the same mood that I am. Everybody’s ready to go. We’re excited about the opportunity,” Bryant said.

Bryant said he is focused only on tonight but it’s tough not to look at the daunting task the Lakers face of winning three straight games.

“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,” he said. “This is not something where we’re down and out. This is still a series. We’ve got a big game (tonight). 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.”

Rondo, Perkins are probable

Boston coach Doc Rivers said he expected Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins to start tonight. Perkins, however, said he probably won’t know until game time whether his injured left shoulder strain will allow him to play a major role.

If Rondo and Perkins aren’t ready for major minutes, the Celtics will certainly use the Eddie House-James Posey lineup around the Big Three that worked wonders in the Game Four comeback.

“That turned out to be a benefit for them,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said of the Celts’ injuries. “Whether there’s a window or not, it turned out to be something that we weren’t as adept at defending as we felt we could defend the other way around. And we should have been ready for it. We saw some of it in the third game and we just didn’t make that adjustment individually staying attached to some of the shooters that came in the game as opposed to some of the power players they had in before.”

A Father’s Day celebration

Several Celtics became fathers during this season, including Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Pierce became a dad for the first time when he welcomed baby girl Prianna Lee Pierce into the world. Perhaps all the new fathers can celebrate Father’s Day in style tonight.

“It’s my first one. I’ve got a little baby girl, two months old, so if I can get a championship on Father’s Day, that’ll be the best Father’s Day anybody could ever ask for, and it’ll definitely be one I’ll always remember, so that’s the goal right now.”

Pierce, meanwhile, says he will have his sore knee checked on after the season and chuckled at one report that stated he needs surgery. “Man, you get the news faster than I do,” he said. “It’s still the same from the time I hurt it (in Game One). Like I said, I really don’t know how bad it is. I won’t know until we end this thing, and that’s why I hope I don’t get hurt and we end it (tonight). Then we’ll see.”

No time to rest

The Celtics may not be the desperate team in these Finals but they intend on playing that way.

“We have to have it. I mean this is a dangerous basketball team we’re playing, and like I said yesterday, you know, minus probably one game each, either team could have won any of these games so it’s that close,” said Rivers. “We understand that, so we have a 3-1 lead, and we feel just as desperate as they do because this series is as close as you can possibly make a series and we understand that.”

kmcnamar@projo.com