SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KRT) — This time they were tested. This time it wasn’t easy. This time the Los Angeles Lakers were asked to play like champions, to show the heart and character of winners.
They’d have to do it from behind, on the road, against all odds. Coach Phil Jackson told them all season that winning a third straight title would be harder than taking the first two.
It was here Sunday. It was also the first time a conference finals Game 7 ever went to overtime, and the Lakers matched the historic challenge with a 112-106 victory that sent them heading toward their third consecutive NBA championship.
“It was the most drawn out, the most hotly contested,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who is going for his record-tying ninth NBA title as a coach. “We had to squeeze everything out of this (Lakers’) ballclub to win. (Now) we are going for the one that counts.”
That’s the NBA Finals starting in Los Angeles on Wednesday against the New Jersey Nets.
“They’re a terrific team because they play a lot of team basketball,” Jackson said of the Nets. “It’s pleasing to watch. They play with a lot of motion, they play with a lot of moxie, and we had two tough, rugged games against them. But we feel confident the winner of this conference is going to win the championship. And we still believe it.”
It was easy to believe after a memorable Game 7, in which the Lakers matched a stretch of brilliant Mike Bibby play at the end of regulation — Bibby scored 10 of the Kings’ last 12 points in regulation and finished with a team high 29 points.
“It was a fun battle,” said Kobe Bryant, who had 30 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists and shadowed Bibby at the end. “It was the most fun I’ve had playing against any individual all year. It was a heck of a series. They gave us a run for our money.”