PHILADELPHIA, June 15 -- The Los Angeles Lakers completed an historic march through the NBA playoffs Friday night, riding the imposing presence of Shaquille O'Neal to their second straight league championship with a 108-96 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Los Angeles turned a four-point halftime lead into a 15-point advantage going into the final quarter en route to the 13th title in franchise history -- the first five coming in Minneapolis.
The Lakers won 15 of their 16 playoff games, the best post-season showing in NBA history. Their only loss came in the opening game of the Championship Series, a shocking overtime setback that produced expectations that the series with the 76ers would be a classic.
But Los Angeles steadily wore down the 76ers over the next four games and closed out the series with its third straight win in Philadelphia.
It was the eighth NBA title for Lakers coach Phil Jackson, leaving him one short of the NBA record established by legendary Boston coach Red Auerbach. Jackson has won his last 20 playoff series.
O'Neal scored 29 points while hitting 10 of 18 shots from the field, claiming 13 rebounds and blocking five shots to earn the MVP honors for the five-game series.
"I have great teammates," he said. "This is my second ring and I couldn't do it without my teammates."
O'Neal was the key factor in a 16-4 run that ended the third quarter. Kobe Bryant then scored six of the first eight Los Angeles points in the fourth period, opening a 92-72 lead that allowed the Lakers to survive the 76ers' final surge of the season.
That run, which brought Philadelphia to within seven points in the final minute, was halted by the sixth three-point shot of the night from Derek Fisher with 51 seconds remaining.
Allen Iverson, the league's MVP this season who helped Philadelphia win two seven-game series en route to the finals, scored 37 points. But he needed 32 shots to do it and when he picked up his third foul with 56 seconds remaining in the first quarter, the energy appeared to drain out of the 76ers.
Philadelphia had a 27-21 lead when Iverson was called for his third foul and Los Angeles promptly went on a 28-13 run. The Lakers took the lead for good with 7:57 remaining in the first half on a short jumper by O'Neal that gave Los Angeles a 36-34 advantage.
The lead quickly grew to nine points, but Iverson, bothered by a contusion in his rib cage suffered while scrambling for a loose ball, scored six in a row and the 76ers cut their deficit to 52-48 at the half.
Fisher, however, opened the second half with a three-point shot and Bryant scored four in a row, two of them coming when he ripped the ball away from Philadelphia center Dikembe Mutumbo and scored on a layup. That burst gave Los Angeles a 60-49 cushion and put the 76ers in too big of a hole to overcome.
"We said if we could get some momentum at the end of the season, we would be all right," said Jackson, who guided his team through a shaky regular campaign that included a brief, but well-publicized feud between O'Neal and Bryant.
Bryant hit only two of 10 shots from the field in the first half, but came back to score 26 points with 12 rebounds and six assists.
"The first one is always very special because you can prove you can do it," Bryant said. "The second one shows it is no fluke."
Rick Fox added 20 for the Lakers and Fisher had 18, all of them coming on three-point shots. He made six of eight from beyond the arc.
"We lost to a great team that is extremely well coached and that has a a guy in the middle who is phenomenal," said Philadelphia coach Larry Brown, who took a team to the Championship Series for the first time in 17-year pro career. "I've been in this for a long time and I don't know if we had won if I would have been any prouder than I am right now. The team tried its best."
