Before Game 5 on Sunday, Phil Jackson was talking about how the Lakers still had a chance as long as the series wasn’t over.

He emphasized that the only way to get out of a 3-1 hole in a best-of-seven series is to ignore the big picture — and 60 years of NBA history showing zero teams (out of 28) coming back from 3-1 to win a title.

Usually, the one-game-at-a-time cliche is paid no more attention by athletes than it is by anyone else. Anyone who can count to seven, and that includes NBA guys, grasp that the idea of winning three straight in the Finals, including two on the road, is so unlikely … well, it often enervates or unnerves them, and they promptly exit, stage right.

That is the direction I took with the column that appears in today’s Temecula Californian, which you can read by linking here.

Phil’s entire quote is in there, but the gist of it is: “We’re young enough and dumb enough to pull it off.” Taking things one game at a time. A sort of running reductio absurdum approach to basketball. “Win this quarter. Win this possession. Win this drive to the basket.”

When you’re working with The Machine and Vlad “Space Cadet” Radmanovic and a batch of other guys who aren’t Deep Thinkers … well, maybe the message actually took root.

Of course, other factors were at work, and the one that strikes me with greatest force, Morning After, is the Celtics playing without Kendrick Perkins.

Perkins hasn’t done a lot in the series, in terms of scoring/rebounding numbers — 4.5 points, 3.5 rebounds over the first four games — but he was this huge (6-10, 280 pounds) presence in the paint. He was averaging a block per game, but what he was doing that didn’t show up in the statistics was keeping the Lakers from going to the rim, and presenting a sort of immovable object that Pau Gasol (et al) couldn’t overcome.

With Perkins out, and with Kevin Garnett’s foul problems, the Celtics suddenly were no bigger and no scarier than Lamar Odom and Pau, which is to say “not scary at all.”

So even with Kobe Bryant struggling, after that 15-point first-quarter eruption, the Lakers were able to get 39 points and 24 rebounds from Odom/Gasol, and that’s why they are going back to Boston right about now.

There is value in big guys. Guys wide as well as tall. Coaches and players grasp this. Garnett said, “Perk is a physical guy. He plays the post better than anybody in this league. That’s what he does. When you lose a key guy, you’re losing something.”

Coaches love big guys. Which is why Phil Jackson gave Kwame Brown about 100 chances to prove he wasn’t a stiff.

Perkins may not play Tuesday either, and the Celtics are getting a little nicked up now. Rajon Rondo and his knee, Paul Pierce and the purported knee injury …

The print column … basically reminds us that Yogi Berra was on to something when he said, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” Though being down 3-1 in the NBA Finals … is about as close to “over” as you can get.