WAS THERE EVER DOUBT?Byline: KEVIN MODESTI EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - When it was over, when it was done, it was hard to remember that this was ever in doubt, that the Lakers' third NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= championship in a row was anything but inevitable. Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. was holding the Lawrence O'Brien
Lawrence David O'Brien trophy overhead on a platform at mid-court at the Meadowlands arena and flashing three fingers, and all those anxious moments in Sacramento the week before last were vanishing into the swamp gas. Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). was being introduced by the commissioner as the most valuable player of the finals, and the pain in the toes that threatened to trip up an entire team was giving way to a pleasant champagne tingle. Derek Fisher Derek Lamar Fisher (born August 9 1974 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American professional basketball player with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was with the Utah Jazz but asked to be released from his contract to care for his 10-month-old daughter, who has cancer. was leading the charge onto the court at the buzzer, and Lindsey Hunter Lindsey Benson Hunter, Jr. (born December 3 1970, in Utica, Mississippi) is an American professional basketball player in the NBA. He is a guard for the Detroit Pistons in active rotation off the bench. was riding piggy-back on Samaki Walker Samaki Ijuma Walker (born February 25 1976 in Columbus, Ohio) is an American professional basketball player currently signed with the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA. [1] , and everybody in purple and gold was hugging, and the notion that Shaq and Kobe's supporting cast was somehow deficient was as good as forgotten. The Lakers were outclassing the New Jersey Nets in the last eight minutes to win 113-107 on Wednesday night and complete a 4-0 sweep, and the inexcusable regular-season losses to the Atlantas and Denvers and Golden States of the pro basketball world were reduced to so many unread footnotes. It was always going to end up this way, wasn't it? The Lakers doing post-game interviews wearing leather Technicolor dream coats with ``Three-peat'' spelled out across the chests. The fans of a vanquished host filing out of their arena while, on the public-address system pub·lic-ad·dress system n. Abbr. PA An electronic amplification apparatus installed and used for broadcasting in public areas. public-address system Noun , the Traveling Wilburys sang about ``the end of the line.'' ``Three in a row is unbelievable,'' Rick Fox was saying in his three-peat jacket. ``One was great ... then we got two ... three, we sweep. Just unbelievable.'' And, yet, as the seconds since the final buzzer turned into minutes and headed toward an hour, ``unbelievable'' hardly seemed the right word. The Lakers silenced the Eastern Conference-champion Nets, and by extension, all the questions about how they got here. In Sacramento, the basketball fans will be talking forever about bad officiating and conspiracies and the 3-2 lead that got away - but everywhere else, they'll know the truth. This was always meant to be. The Lakers' biggest problem along the way was that sometimes, in the middle of the long regular-season haul, they played like they knew it. It's true, somewhere in the middle of January I wrote that the three-peat was not inevitable. At the buzzer here Wednesday night, that sheet of newsprint instantly yellowed, dried up, crumbled and blew away. When it's all over in June, who remembers January? The last game played out like the season. A quick start. A slip, a slide. A crossroads in the middle. A push toward the end. A stumble. A resolute and decisive capper cap·per n. 1. One that caps or makes caps. 2. Informal Something that surpasses or completes what has gone before; a finishing touch or finale. 3. . Down the stretch, there was Bryant scoring three consecutive Lakers baskets - a right baseline jumper, a moving jumper, an impossible driving lay-up - to take a 92-91 lead to 104-95. There was Fisher hitting a 2-pointer from the right corner after making a pair of 3-pointers, topping off a series in which he made two-thirds of his shots from the arc, just in case you'd thought 2001 was a mirage. There was Robert Horry Robert Horry (born August 25, 1970 in Harford County, Maryland) is an American National Basketball Association basketball player. Currently playing for the San Antonio Spurs, Horry is is known for his ability to make clutch shots in big games. with two more 3s, because what would a big Lakers game be without Big Game Rob? There was O'Neal, unstoppable for the rest of the league, uncontainable for the Nets, leading all of the Lakers scorers with 34 points, retaking RETAKING. The taking one's goods, wife, child, &c., from another, who without right has taken possession thereof. Vide Recaption; Rescue. charge of the offense from Bryant in the playoffs' last five games. There was another opposing star trying to stop a tidal wave tidal wave, term properly applied to the crest of a tide as it moves around the earth. The wavelike upstream rush of water caused by the incoming tide in some locations is known as a tidal bore. , Kenyon Martin Kenyon Lee Martin (born December 30, 1977 in Saginaw, Michigan), is an American professional basketball player. Nicknamed 'K-Mart', he currently plays at power forward for the National Basketball Association's Denver Nuggets. coming out on fire, scoring 17 points in the first quarter on his way to 35, and finding that it wasn't nearly enough. There was another losing coach talking about how, darn if his team didn't lapse into ``confusion'' at key moments in the make-or-break minutes while the Lakers squinted and focused on the prize. With 44.2 seconds on the clock and the Nets within two 3-pointers of a tie, coach Byron Scott Byron Scott may refer to:
Considering all they'd been through, at the end, it was too easy. Careful readers of history's fine print in the decades ahead will discover that there were moments of uncertainty on the Lakers' way to title No. 3. That's hard to think about after 4-0. 14 TITLES The 14 banners on the page represent the NBA championships won by the Lakers. The past nine titles were won in Los Angeles, the first five in Minneapolis. LOS ANGELES: 2002 LOS ANGELES: 2001 LOS ANGELES: 2000 LOS ANGELES: 1988 LOS ANGELES: 1987 LOS ANGELES: 1985 LOS ANGELES: 1982 LOS ANGELES: 1980 LOS ANGELES: 1972 MINNEAPOLIS: 1954 MINNEAPOLIS: 1953 MINNEAPOLIS: 1952 MINNEAPOLIS: 1950 MINNEAPOLIS: 1949 CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Lakers guard Kobe Bryant hoists the NBA trophy after the Lakers victory over New Jersey in Game 4 of the NBA series. John McCoy/Staff Photographer Box: 14 TITLES (see text) |
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