The Los Angeles Lakers were the team to beat in the 2000s as the franchise was led by the superstar duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
O’Neal and Bryant were absolutely dominant during that period, leading the Lakers to a “three-peat” and cementing the organization’s status as the greatest in the NBA history.
However, their road to the final title of that run was a difficult one as they ran into their rivals the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference Finals. Sacramento was considered by many to be the best team in the league at the time and pushed Los Angeles to a Game 7.
Fortunately, the Lakers prevailed in a nail-biting overtime though Mike Bibby believes his Kings should have won the title that year, via the Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles:
“It was a championship that we should have got out of that because we go to Game 7 we shoot two for 13 from the three and under 50 percent from the free throw and go into overtime. I know we were a better team that season. Maybe the years before or years after maybe not, but that year we were the best team, I think, in the league all the way around.
“But going there was just fun to play. Playing in front of all the movie stars and the rappers and all that stuff. And just that gym’s so damn quiet anyway you could hear what anybody says to you. And it was just good that they used to get on me cause I used to talk a lot of -expletive- when I got out there. But I just hear stuff and just get me going and get me going. I loved playing in L.A., that’s probably one of the best teams I loved playing against because I knew going there it’s gonna be a movie.”
Bibby and the Kings were truly a difficult team to stop from scoring as they had a well-balanced attack. However, they shot themselves out of Game 7 and gave L.A. the opportunity to steal the series on the road.
The Lakers would go on to sweep the New Jersey Nets in the 2002 NBA Finals, while the Kings were forced to watch from home. It’s a fun what-if for fans, but the purple and gold certainly won’t complain how things panned out.
Klay Thompson gives credit to Lakers for beating Warriors in 2023 NBA postseason
Another Northern California team has a gripe with the Lakers as well as the Golden State Warriors fell to them in the 2023 Western Conference Semifinals. Los Angeles was the more physical team throughout the series and Klay Thompson couldn’t help but give them credit for beating them.
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