After going back and forth and taking turns controlling affairs, the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings would face off in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.
This contest would be for all the marbles. With the New Jersey Nets, the Eastern Conference champs who had won a mere 52 games in the regular season, waiting in the wings, this seventh game was acknowledged by everyone as the world championship game.
It was held at Arco Arena in Sacramento, and normally, the home team in a Game 7 feels that it is the one game it is supposed to win. The home team in this type of situation is supposed to feel like it is the one game in the series that its opponent simply can’t or won’t win.
But coming off a frustrating and bitter Game 6 loss, the Kings’ minds were apparently not in the right space.
Via Grantland:
“Before the game, I went into the locker room — the thing that always stuck with me was that players were still whining about Game 6, how they got screwed, everyone from Rick Adelman to Geoff Petrie,” said Ailene Voisin, a sports reporter for the Sacramento Bee. “They were still consumed by Game 6.”
Still, both teams looked sharp from the start, and for a while, it looked like the Kings were on the verge of ending L.A.’s two-year title reign.
They took a two-point lead into halftime, and they extended it to nine early in the third quarter. A subsequent run by the Lakers, sparked by Kobe Bryant, allowed them to briefly take a one-point advantage, but the rest of the contest was an epic tug of war.
In crunch time, Kings guard Mike Bibby became the most dangerous man in all of basketball. None of his teammates wanted the ball, let alone to take a shot, but Bibby made shot after shot and single-handedly got Sacramento within a hair of victory.
Fittingly, the game went into overtime, and after they trailed 106-104, the Lakers scored eight straight points to finally end the Kings’ season and their title hopes.
It was one of the greatest and most entertaining basketball games ever played, and one of the greatest and biggest wins in Lakers history.
Bryant played a magnificent game with 30 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and no turnovers while playing all but 27 seconds of the contest. Shaquille O’Neal put up 35 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson played his five starters almost every single minute of the game, and each of them hit double figures in scoring. All of them, except for guard Derek Fisher, also had at least 10 rebounds.
L.A. then went on to sweep the Nets in the NBA Finals to officially claim their third straight world championship. If they weren’t a true dynasty yet, they had at least established a rock-solid foundation for one.
