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EVENTS
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LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Plan the parade route. Give the jeweler a call. The Los Angeles Lakers are headed back to the NBA Finals and it appears nothing can stop them. The Lakers returned to the championship round unbeaten and untested after a 111-82 victory over the San Antonio Spurs that completed an astonishing and annihilating sweep. The matchup of the last two NBA champions was supposed to be an epic series. Instead it was more like a new TV show devoid of drama that should have been canceled episodes ago. "We had San Antonio on their heels," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who has won 19 straight playoff series. "They are a very ggood basketball club. To win a series like this is a remarkable feat." Led by Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers won all four games by a combined 89 points as they continued their march to the greatest postseason in history. They won the last two games on their home floor by 39 and 29 points, reducing San Antonio's "Twin Towers" of Tim Duncan and David Robinson to rubble. "In the playoffs it's all about getting hot at the right time," O'Neal said. "We feel like we're unbeatable when we get out there on the floor," Lakers guard Brian Shaw said. "Everybody's focused." Los Angeles completed its third consecutive sweep and is 11-0 in the playoffs, a feat never accomplished by Michael Jordan and the dynastic Chicago Bulls of the 1990s. The last team to do it was the Lakers themselves in 1989. "It's becoming rather scary," Lakers forward Rick Fox said. "We're beating teams that you'd expect to be formidable opponents but it's not looking that way." The Spurs had the NBA's best record during the season and were thought to have the best chance of dethroning the Lakers. They put up very little fight and became the first team with the top mark to get swept out of the postseason since the 1977 Lakers. "You've got to think back to when 'Showtime' was here before (or) the Celtics teams when they were on rolls," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "These guys are really doing a hell of a job." To get to last year's Finals, O'Neal and Bryant had to overcome a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter of Game Seven against Portland. This year, the superstars were laughing on the bench, watching subs finish out the garbage time that punctuated the entire series. The Lakers will have at least seven days off before facing the Philadelphia 76ers or Milwaukee Bucks, who are battling in the Eastern Conference. It is hard to imagine either of those teams getting in the way of Los Angeles repeating as champion. "I don't know what Milwaukee and Philly could do different," Duncan said. "If they play anywhere close to that the Eastern team can't win a game from them," Robinson said. If the Lakers sweep the Finals, they would become the first team to go through the playoffs without losing. The 1983 Philadelphia 76ers went 12-1 en route to the title. "We do a very good job of staying in the moment and taking it game to game and that's what we're going to continue to do," Bryant said. "We just want to win a championship, no matter how we get there, no matter what it takes." O'Neal had 26 points and 10 rebounds, making 11-of-19 shots in just 31 minutes. Bryant had 24 points and 11 assists, draining 10-of-19 shots in 34 minutes. And for the first time in the postseason, the dynamic duo had to take a back seat to someone else. Guard Derek Fisher continued his emergence as a third scoring option with a career-high 28 points. Fisher made 6-of-7 3-pointers, demoralizing the Spurs, who spent most of the series double-teaming O'Neal and chasing Bryant all over the court. Fisher was 15-of-20 from the arc in the series, setting a record for a four-game set. "Obviously, I'm playing at a level I haven't shown before," said Fisher, who is averaging 15.1 points per game in the postseason. "But I think I'm capable of being a consistent player." The Lakers scored the first six points and raced to a 33-23 lead as O'Neal and Fisher each scored eight points in the first quarter. The highlight was an alley-oop pass from Fisher that Bryant soared to grab with his left hand, controlled with his right and dunked home with two hands. Fox's fast-break dunk capped an 11-0 surge that gave Los Angeles a 56-30 lead with 5:19 left in the second quarter. San Antonio trailed 64-41 at halftime and got no closer than 17 points the rest of the way. The Lakers avenged a sweep at the hands of the Spurs in the 1999 conference semifinals. "It definitely feels good to sweep them," Bryant said. "I think the players played with a sense of remembering the last time they had played against the Spurs in a series two years ago," Jackson said. Fox scored 12 points for the Lakers, who held an astounding 54-33 rebounding advantage and shot 49 percent (42-of-86). Duncan had 15 points and seven rebounds and Robinson added 12 and 11 for the Spurs, who shot 40 percent (31-of-77) and were swept in a postseason series for the first time since the 1992 first round against Phoenix. |
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