2001 NBA Finals

The 2001 NBA Finals was the championship round of the 2000-01 National Basketball Association season. The Los Angeles Lakers of the Western Conference took on the Philadelphia 76ers of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Lakers holding home court advantage. The series is played under a best-of-seven format, so the first team to collect four game victories wins the series.

The Lakers won the series 4 games to 1. Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal was named the Most Valuable Player of the series.

Allen Iverson scored 48 points in his only NBA finals victory, as the Sixers took Game 1 in a stunning upset 107-101 in OT. But the Lakers won the next four despite being outshot and outrebounded in the series. L.A. punished the Sixers with their excellent 3-point shooting which was the key to this series. In Game 3 Robert Horry hit a clutch 3-pointer in the last minute, and in the next two games the Lakers used hot 3-point shooting to build big leads and hold off late Sixer comebacks in Games 4 and 5, pulling away for double digit wins to capture the title.

Broadcasters: NBC; Marv Albert (play-by-play) and Doug Collins (color commentator)

Series scoring summary

The following scoring summary is written in a line score format, except that the quarter numbers are replaced by game numbers.

• *denotes a game that required overtime.

2001 NBA Finals Roster

2001 Los Angeles Lakers

Head Coach: Phil Jackson
Shaquille O'Neal | Kobe Bryant | Derek Fisher | Rick Fox | Horace Grant | Isaiah Rider | Ron Harper | Brian Shaw | Robert Horry | Stanislav Medvedenko | Tyronn Lue | Devean George | Greg Foster | Mark Madsen |

2001 Philadelphia 76ers

Head Coach: Larry Brown
Allen Iverson | Dikembe Mutombo | Aaron McKie | Eric Snow | Tyrone Hill | George Lynch | Matt Geiger | Rodney Buford | Jumaine Jones | Todd MacCulloch | Kevin Ollie | Roshown Mcleod | Raja Bell | Pepe Sanchez | Anthony Miller |

Background

Main article: 2001 NBA Playoffs

The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2000-01 NBA season as the defending NBA Champions. The club lost a few key stars to free agency, but they managed to sign up key veteran players like Isaiah Rider and Horace Grant. The Lakers began the season struggling on and off the court, as they were losing key games at the beginning with the Shaq-Kobe feud. Injuries also riddled the team as they struggled through the season. But by April 1, 2001, the Lakers last loss was to the New York Knicks and they never looked back as the team closed out the season on an eight-game winning streak, thus finishing the season 56-26 and closing out as the #2 seed in the West behind the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers began the 2001 NBA Playoffs versus the team against whom they battled thick in thin^[clarify] the previous year in the Conference Finals, the Portland Trail Blazers. The Blazers were a team that struggled throughout the season but battled back to claim the 7th seed. Experts^[who?] believed this series was to become a full five-game series, but it wasn't even close as the Lakers swept the Blazers by double digits in all three games. In the semifinals the Lakers took on the Sacramento Kings, a team who had also given the Lakers a tough series last year, but the Lakers took two close games at home and went to Sacramento to finish the Kings off with a 4-0 sweep as well. In the Conference Finals the Lakers went up against the #1 seed San Antonio Spurs, who were expected to take the Lakers to six or seven games. But it was still all too easy for the Lakers as they took games 1 and 2 in San Antonio then blew them out in games 3 and 4 in Los Angeles in another complete sweep as they became the second team in NBA history to sweep the conference playoffs at 11-0, the 1988-1989 Los Angeles Lakers being the first.

But the Los Angeles Lakers met a snag on their quest to the first NBA Sweep in playoff history as they went up against Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia Sixers. The Sixers, seeded #1 in the East, had just come out of two straight seven-game series. During the first game, the tandem of Iverson, Dikembe Mutumbo, and Eric Snow, coming hot off a long Eastern Conference championship road, beat the Lakers in overtime, showcasing their endurance.

The Lakers then took Game 2. Afterwards, superstar Kobe Bryant was quoted as saying he was coming to Philadelphia to cut their hearts out.^{[citation needed]} The Sixers dropped the next three games in Philadelphia, giving the Lakers their second straight championship.

Schedule

• Game 1 - June 6, Wednesday , 9:00pm et @Los Angeles, Philadelphia 107, Los Angeles 101 (OT): Philadelphia leads series 1-0
• Game 2 - June 8, Friday , 9:00pm et @Los Angeles, Los Angeles 98, Philadelphia 89: Series tied 1-1
• Game 3 - June 10, Sunday , 8:30pm et @Philadelphia, Los Angeles 96, Philadelphia 91: Los Angeles leads series 2-1
• Game 4 - June 13, Wednesday , 8:30pm et @Philadelphia, Los Angeles 100, Philadelphia 86: Los Angeles leads series 3-1
• Game 5 - June 15, Friday , 8:30pm et @Philadelphia, Los Angeles 108, Philadelphia 96: Los Angeles wins series 4-1

The Finals were played using a 2-3-2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Finals in 1985. As of yet, the other playoff series are still running on a 2-2-1-1-1 site format.

Game 1

Wednesday, June 6, at the Staples Center

The Lakers dominated early, in what looked like to be their fourth series sweep. Scoring 16 straight points, the Lakers took a 21-9 lead over the Allen Iverson-led 76ers. Despite this major lead, Allen Iverson began dominating at the half of the 2nd quarter scoring 30 first half points. The 76ers turned the game around and even went up by 15 points during the third quarter before the Lakers started a comeback. Shaquille O'Neal was a major factor in the comeback, scoring 18 points in the quarter.

The Lakers played fantastic during the 4th quarter, and Tyronn Lue came off the bench and limited Allen Iverson to merely 3 points and had 3 assists and 2 steals of his own. The game was eventually tied at 94, and when Dikembe Mutombo missed two free throws the game went to overtime.

The Lakers dominated for the first half of the overtime, scoring 5 points, but Allen Iverson scored 7 points, and Raja Bell came off the bench to score a crucial lay-up and Iverson hit a 3-pointer over Tyronne Lue which gave the 76ers a permanent lead. The Lakers hopes to complete the "Fo', fo', fo" was shattered.

Trivia

• The Lakers became the third team to win the middle three games in a Finals series while the 2-3-2 format has been used (joining the 1990 Detroit Pistons and 1991 Chicago Bulls). All three teams did so by winning games 3 through 5 on the road. Two more teams, the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons and the 2005-06 Miami Heat, has since accomplished the feat by winning the middle three at home.
• By winning the Finals MVP award, Shaquille O'Neal joined the list of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Tim Duncan as the only players to win the award at least twice. Jordan, Olajuwon and O'Neal are the only three to win the award in back-to-back years.
• Robert Horry and Ron Harper became the second and third players in NBA history to win of back-to-back titles with two different franchises, joining Dennis Rodman.
• The Lakers were the first team to go 15-1 in the postseason, sweeping the Western Conference and then sweeping the 76ers after their Game 1 loss in the Finals.
• This was the second time the Lakers entered a Finals series with an 11-0 record. They also swept thru the Western Conference in 1989 before being swept by the Detroit Pistons.
• This was the last Finals series where the players wore the Finals logo patch on the jersey. Since, the teams have had the Larry O'Brien trophy as the patch on their uniform.

See also

• 2001 NBA Playoffs

External links

• Official website
• NBA History