This time they were tested. This time it wasn’t easy. This time the Los Angeles Lakers were asked to play like champions, to show the heart and character of winners.
They’d have to do it from behind, on the road, against all odds. Coach Phil Jackson told them all season that winning a third straight title would be harder than taking the first two.
It was all there Sunday. It was also the first time a conference finals Game 7 went to overtime, and the Lakers matched the historic challenge with a 112-106 victory that kept alive their quest for a third consecutive NBA championship.
“It was the most drawn out, the most hotly contested,” said Jackson, who is going for his record-tying ninth NBA title as a coach. “We had to squeeze everything out of this ballclub to win. [Now] we are going for the one that counts.”
That’s the NBA Finals starting in Los Angeles on Wednesday against the New Jersey Nets.
“They’re a terrific team because they play a lot of team basketball,” Jackson said of the Nets. “It’s pleasing to watch. They play with a lot of motion, they play with a lot of moxie, and we had two tough rugged games against them. But we feel confident the winner of this conference is going to win the championship. And we still believe it.”
It was easy to believe after a memorable Game 7 in which the Lakers matched a stretch of brilliant play by Mike Bibby at the end of regulation–Bibby scored 10 of the Kings’ last 12 points in regulation and finished with a team-high 29 points
“It was a fun battle,” said Kobe Bryant, who had 30 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and shadowed Bibby at the end. “It was the most fun I’ve had playing against any individual all year. It was a heck of a series. They gave us a run for our money.”
The Lakers, who won a Game 7 on the road for the first time in franchise history, had a chance to win at the end of regulation. But Shaquille O’Neal, who led all scorers with 35 points, missed a jumper with seconds left and the score tied at 100.
Bibby appeared to be one of the few Kings who wanted to shoot in the game’s pressure-packed final moments, hitting a jumper to give the Kings their last lead at 104-102 with about three minutes left in overtime.
“I thought we had a good chance to win this game,” Bibby said. “I think it will be a battle for years to come. It was still there for us to win at the end. We just didn’t do it.”
Derek Fisher then drove, was fouled and made both free throws. Foul shots proved crucial with the Lakers making 27-of-33 and the Kings just 16 of their 30.
“We missed a lot of free throws,” said the Kings’ Bobby Jackson. “We had a chance to win the game. We can only kick ourselves in the butt for that. We had a great year and cannot put our heads down.”
Game 7 marked the first time all series the Lakers’ so-called supporting players contributed as a group as Robert Horry had 16 points and Rick Fox and Fisher 13 apiece.
The Kings failed to score on four straight possessions in overtime in the Lakers’ best defensive stand of the game. Los Angeles pushed ahead as O’Neal, who hit 11-of-15 free throws, hit two and Fisher added two more. When Chris Webber missed with eight seconds left, the Lakers were on their way to history.
“We’ll be back in these latter stages of the playoffs in the future,” said a dejected Webber, who had 20 points and 11 assists but just two points in the fourth quarter and two in overtime and only six total after halftime. “It was like two boxers going at it. We fought back but just didn’t get the win.
“It shows our character, the ability to fight through adversity,” Bryant said. “They were playing better basketball than us. But we were able to hang in there and win the series. It was a gut check. To be tested like this, right here, right now, and respond like we have gives us a lot of confidence.”
Players from both teams were correct. Each said the pressure was on the other team, and everyone seemed nervous to open the pivotal Game 7. The Kings missed four consecutive free throws at one point in the first quarter as the Lakers took an early 15-10 lead. Kings shots were consistently going long as they seemed too energized, urged on by the raucous crowd.
“Cowbells are not blocking any shots in a Game 7,” Bryant warned.
But the local custom of ringing cowbells appeared to revive the Kings in the second quarter.
The Kings used a 12-3 run to take a 47-42 lead but settled for a 54-52 halftime lead.
So it was 24 minutes to celebration and heartbreak. The Kings believed it was their time, like the Lakers, Pistons and Bulls before them, to overtake the physical and mental obstacle of a champion rival after being eliminated in the playoffs by the Lakers the previous two seasons. For the Lakers, it was another dance with history and the elusive championship three-peat. In any case, it is now officially a rivalry to match those of the 1980s as the Lakers ended the Kings’ season for the third straight year.
The third quarter was a harbinger for the finish as the Kings, miserable shooting free throws, scrambled after misses twice and went on a 9-0 run to take a 63-54 lead as the Lakers continued to play the Kings’ screen/roll play lazily. But the Lakers finally got some production from their reserves as Fox drove for a basket after a Fisher three-pointer that pushed the Lakers within 74-73 going into the fourth quarter.
Bibby, his team’s best pressure player in the series, scored 10 of the Kings’ last 12 points of the fourth quarter, the final two on free throws with 8.2 seconds left to tie the game at 100. O’Neal then missed a straight-on jumper at the free-throw line for the win and the Lakers missed two tips to send the game into overtime.
“We had five minutes to go,” said Bryant, wearing a Joe Montana jersey after the game. “We came too far to give up.”
And now for the Lakers it’s perhaps on to a third straight championship.
