2001 NBA Finals

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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 ever NBA finals victory, the Sixers took Game 1 in a stunning upset 107-101 in OT. But the Lakers won the last 4 despite being outshot and outrebounded in the series, they 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 the next 2 games the Lakers used hot 3-point shooting to build big leads and held off late Sixer comebacks in Game 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)

Contents 1 Series scoring summary 2 2001 NBA Finals Roster 2.1 2001 Los Angeles Lakers 2.2 2001 Philadelphia 76ers 3 Background 4 Schedule 5 Trivia 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Series scoring summary

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

Team	Game 1*	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5	Wins
Los Angeles (West)	101	98	96	100	108	4
Philadelphia (East)	107	89	91	86	96	1

• *denotes a game that required overtime.

[edit] 2001 NBA Finals Roster

[edit] 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 | Mike Penberthy | Stanislav Medvedenko | Tyronn Lue | Devean George | Greg Foster | Mark Madsen |

[edit] 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 |

[edit] Background

Main article: 2001 NBA Playoffs

The Los Angeles Lakers enter the 2000-01 NBA season as the defending NBA Champions. The club lost a few key stars to free agency, but they manage 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 look back as the team close out the season on a 8 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 begin the 2001 NBA Playoffs versus the team against whom they battled thick in thin the previous year in the Conference Finals, the Portland Trailblazers. The Blazers were a team that struggle throughout the season but battled back to claim the 7th seed. Experts believe this series was to become a full 5 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 to easy for the Lakers as they took games 1 & 2 in San Antonio then blew them out in games 3 & 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 Laker met a snag on their quest to the first NBA Sweep in playoff history as they went up against Allen Iverson and the big-hearted Philadelphia Sixers. The Sixers, seeded #1 in the east, had come out of two straight 7 game series'. During the first game, the tandem of Iverson, Dikembe Mutumbo, Eric Snow, coming hot off a long eastern conference championship road, beat the Lakers during overtime, showcasing their endurance.

The Lakers would then take Game 2. Afterwards, superstar Kobe Bryant was quoted he was coming to Philly to cut their hearts out. The Sixers would drop the next 3 games in Philadelphia, giving the Lakers their second straight championship.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.
• 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 became the second player in NBA history to be a member of back-to-back title-winning teams 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.

[edit] See also

• 2001 NBA Playoffs

[edit] External links

• Official website
• NBA History