EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Before the NBA Finals began last week, New Jersey Nets coach Byron Scott portrayed his team's matchup with the Los Angeles Lakers as a meeting be tween a team of destiny and one of a dynastic mode.
Score one for the dynasty, as the Lakers claimed their third straight championship last night with a 113-107 win over the Nets here at Continental Airlines Arena.
These Lakers claimed their place in history, becoming the fifth team in league history to win three straight titles, and their coach, Phil Jackson tied Boston mentor Red Auerbach with nine championships.
But these Lakers, in winning the 14th championship in franchise history, take a special place as the first Los Angeles team to sweep its way to a title. In addition, the Lakers become the first team that Jackson, who headed a pair of threepeat teams in Chicago, has coached that has swept the Finals.
Los Angeles center Shaquille O'Neal scored 34 points to win his third straight NBA Finals MVP award. Kobe Bryant added 25 points. Kenyon Martin led New Jersey with 35 points and 11 rebounds.
Trailing by one at halftime, New Jersey came out of the chutes with two quick baskets, one from Jason Kidd from 20 feet and a drive from Kerry Kittles to take a 61-58 lead. But Rick Fox answered with a three-pointer at the 10:41 mark to tie the score.
The teams traded leads for the next four minutes until Fox hit another three-pointer in the right corner with 6:05 remaining in the period to give Los Angeles a 74-69 lead. From there, O'Neal took over, scoring the Lakers" next six points, on dunks or short turnarounds, boosting the Lakers" lead to 78-71.
Bryant's three-pointer at the 2:52 mark and an O"Neal free throw gave the Lakers an 84-76 lead. But Kidd hit two jumpers in the final 1:13 of the period to trim the lead to four, and give New Jersey a measure of hope, heading into the fourth.
Heading into last night's game, Jackson said he would give O'Neal, who averaged 37 points and 13 rebounds in the first three games of the series, an extra workload if the Lakers had a chance to clinch, out of fear of having the series extended any longer than necessary.
"I've just told them about the importance of keeping the momentum going." Jackson said before the game. "And if you lose momentum, you lose opportunities. And momentum shifts from quarter to quarter and shifts from timeout to timeout. But it also shifts from game to game. If this team [the Nets] gains mo mentum, we have a series. We can have a series on our hands if we're not careful."
The Nets, with their greatest player in franchise history, for ward Julius Erving, the cornerstone of two ABA title teams in the mid-1970s, in attendance, seized the momentum early, taking the Lakers' best punch, and firing back in kind.
Los Angeles hit its first five shots, jumping out to a 20-15 lead, with 11 from O'Neal in the run. But the Nets, who had gen erally played poorly in the first quarters of the series, came back with a 15-1 run, with Martin providing the emotional charge. He scored seven points in the burst and picked up a technical foul in the process. The 30-21 New Jersey lead at the 2:25 mark of the quarter was the largest of the series for the Nets, who held on to lead 34-27 at the end of the period.
In the second quarter, with O'Neal resting early, the Lakers outscored New Jersey 16-7 to take a 43-41 lead with 7:36 left in the half. In the run, reserve forward Devean George hit a three- pointer and Bryant poured in five points, three off a marvelous play where he got Aaron Williams up off the floor with a fake, then hit an off-balance jumper off the contact from 17 feet away.
The Lakers threatened to blow the game open, as George, then Horry, then Derek Fisher hit threes in a two-minute span to give Los Angeles a 58-52 lead with 1:03 remaining. But the Nets put on a quick 5-0 flurry, on an 18-foot jumper from Lucious Harris, who also hit a technical foul shot, for 11 points in the half, followed by a flying dunk from Richard Jefferson, to trail by only one, 58-57, at intermission.