12/7/2023 0 Comments Kings lakers 2002The Lakers went on a 16-6 run towards the end of the 2nd quarter, with the score ending at 65-48 with just a few seconds before the teams were to head to the locker rooms. While they may have seemed merely mortal to begin the game, their powers seemed to be returning as they neared halftime. In the middle of the action, it was indicated by the broadcast team that Chris Webber said something before the game about the Lakers now seeming “human” in their eyes and that “they don’t look at them anymore like superheroes” after meeting them in the playoffs twice before. The Lakers didn’t couldn’t muster a potent response on the other end either as the entire team, aside from Shaquille O’Neal (4-7 FG), shot terribly from the field (4-20 FG). Mike Bibby led the way for the Kings in that opening quarter, drilling five different mid-range jumpers off of screens, leaving Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher with no answer for the man who would later go viral for pumping a lot of iron. The Kings took Game 2 before pummeling the Lakers in Los Angeles’ Game 3 they held a 75-52 lead heading into the 4th quarter before an OG Laker fake comeback cut the deficit to a baker’s dozen by the game’s end.Īs Game 4 got going, it seemed like the Lakers were about to lose their chance at a third straight title, going down 40-20 in just the 1st-quarter, inciting boos from the home crowd at Staples. Winning Game 1 marked their 12th straight road playoff win as a franchise, but that - as a lot of events within this series - did not last long. The first-seeded Kings owned home-court advantage in the series over the third-seeded Lakers, but the Lakers stole that advantage away to open the series. In a deep, deep holeĪfter meeting in the first round of the 2000 playoffs, and then the 2001 Western Conference semi-finals, the Lakers and Kings took their budding rivalry to the natural next step in the 2002 Western Conference Finals. There were eight teams in the entire league during the course of that Celtics run.īut if Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Phil Jackson (yet again) were to cement their legacies amongst those Bulls and Celtics teams, they would have to go through the same road block they had to go through in both of the 20 NBA Playoffs while winning their first two championships. In fact, other than the Lakers and Bulls, the only other franchise to do it is the Boston Celtics, who won eight championships in a row from 1959-66 when there were like - I don’t know - three teams in the league?* The Golden State Warriors haven’t done it. Although a Lakers victory at the end of the 2002 NBA Playoffs would have created a new normal in the league of three-peats, the occurrence over the league’s history is much more uncommon than it may have seemed in that era. This 2001-02 season saw the Lakers pursuing a three-peat as they tried to become the second NBA franchise to do so in the past decade after Michael Jordan’s Bulls did it twice between 1991-98. Now, let’s jump into Game 4 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and Kings - a game that turned on a mounting comeback followed by fireworks, and later, controversy. In the first entry of this series, we talked about what happened before and after Derek Fisher’s 0.4 game-winner against the Spurs in the 2004 NBA Playoffs. So let’s travel back in time history and recontextualize some of our favorite Lakers memories in order to fully appreciate their awesomeness. However, the goal here isn’t just to remember these moments, it is to remember the moments leading up to THE moment that overshadowed everything in that game, and sometimes the entire series. With a little over a month of offseason left to go, now is the perfect time to dive into a few of the Lakers ’ most memorable playoff moments.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |