MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The "Fantastic Four" of the Los Angeles Lakers had the first of what should be many magical moments.
Karl Malone, Gary Payton, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal collaborated on the key play down the stretch as the Lakers rallied for a 113-107 victory over the pesky Milwaukee Bucks.
Much has been made of the offseason additions of future Hall of Famers Malone and Payton to a team that already included Bryant and O'Neal, two of the top players in the game. But the quartet had yet to flash its combined brilliance - until Tuesday.
After Bryant's clutch shooting erased an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit and provided a 103-101 lead with 90 seconds to play, Milwaukee's Tim Thomas drove down the lane but was stripped by Malone, who appeared to commit a foul.
"It was like going 7-against-5 because all the refs are looking at them like they're already in the Hall of Fame," Thomas said.
"He waved his teammates out," Malone said. "He tested my manhood, and I took that as a direct challenge."
The ball came loose and Devean George fired downcourt to Payton, who dribbled once and passed to Bryant along the baseline. Bryant held the ball for a second before finding O'Neal, who was trailing the play.
"If all of us touch the ball, you know something special like that is going to happen," Payton said. "We're trying to do that every night."
The 7-1, 350-pound center barreled down the lane, drew a foul and scored. His free throw made it 106-101 with 1:02 remaining, and Bryant answered Michael Redd's foul shots with another clutch jumper to seal it with 30 seconds left.
"I'm like Colin Powell now - I've got all the weapons, with four guys on the court who can carry each other," O'Neal said.
The most effective weapon was Bryant, who had 31 points, eight assists and seven rebounds in his best game since missing most of training camp while recuperating from offseason knee surgery.
"I think we're really on the same page now," O'Neal said. "Any night, any one of us can go crazy. Tonight was Kobe's night. He carried us. It's fun to be on a team like this with other legends."
"We have come to expect that he plays big in games and he comes to play in the fourth quarter," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said.
O'Neal had 23 points and 14 rebounds, Payton scored 19 points and Malone added 11 and 11 boards as the Lakers (4-0) remained one of just two unbeaten teams.
"We won that game on experience alone, experience of our veteran players," Jackson said.
Redd scored a career-high 36 points for the young Bucks, who have lost the last five meetings with the Lakers.
"We lost our composure," said Redd, who made 13-of-23 shots and added eight rebounds. "They took advantage of their veteran leadership. Gary and Derek (Fisher) did a great job directing them and Kobe made some big shots.
Redd made three of his five 3-pointers in the third quarter, when the Bucks led by as many as 10 points before settling for an 86-83 edge entering the final period.
Milwaukee still held a 97-89 advantage after a free throw by Dan Gadzuric with 7:07 to play. Bryant made a pair of 3-pointers around a coast-to-coast layup by Payton, giving the Lakers a 103-101 lead with 1:30 left.
"You have to make plays down the stretch," Bucks coach Terry Porter said. "We just didn't make the plays and they did."
George scored 11 points and Fisher added 10 for the Lakers, who shot 46 percent (40-of-87) from the field and survived 16 missed free throws, including eight by O'Neal.
Thomas had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Desmond Mason scored 13 points for the Bucks, who shot just 40 percent (36-of-90).
Payton, the greatest player in the history of the Seattle SuperSonics who spent the last half of last season with the Bucks, did not receive much of a reaction from the Bradley Center crowd.
The Lakers led by 12 points in the first quarter, but Thomas scored 10 points in the second period, helping the Bucks close to 57-54 at halftime.
