EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., June 12 (UPI) -- The Los Angeles Lakers staked out a special place in basketball history Wednesday night, riding a typical effort from Shaquille O'Neal to complete a four-game sweep of New Jersey, 113-107, that brought them their third consecutive NBA championship.
It was the seventh sweep in a league final and gave Phil Jackson his record-equaling ninth title as an NBA coach.
With Michael Jordan as the centerpiece, Jackson coached the Chicago Bulls to six championships in the 1990s. And now with O'Neal and Kobe Bryant creating as overpowering a combination as the NBA has ever seen, the Lakers first survived a thrilling, seven-game duel with the Sacramento Kings and then brushed the Nets aside with relative ease.
"They are a team for the ages," NBA Commissioner David Stern said during the award ceremony, "as they get better before our very eyes."
For the second straight game, New Jersey had the lead in the fourth quarter, but the Nets could not prevent the Lakers from producing the vital surge.
O'Neal hit 12 of 20 shots from the field, 10 of 16 from the line, claimed 10 rebounds and scored 34 points in being named the NBA Finals MVP for the third straight year. He joins Jordan as the only players to capture the honor three times in a row.
"I want to thank my teammates for having confidence in me and getting me the ball," O'Neal said. "I told them when the playoffs started I was going to pick up my game and that if we got to the finals, I wouldn't let them down."
Bryant scored 25 points while making seven of 16 shots from the field and nine fo 11 from the line.
The Lakers made 11 of 19 shots from three-point range while hitting 52 percent of their shots overall.
The Nets were led by Keynon Martin, who scored 17 of his career-high 35 points in the first period.
New Jersey went on a 19-3 run in the opening quarter to grab an 11-point lead. But Los Angeles caught up four minutes deep in the second period and fought off the Nets the rest of the way.
After Los Angeles seized an eight-point advantage late in the third period, New Jersey scored the final four points of that quarter and the first seven of the fourth -- most of that run coming with O'Neal on the bench.
Moments after O'Neal returned, however, Bryant hit a three-point shot to tie it at 87-87 and the Lakers did not trail again. They put the game away with eight straight points, the last of them coming on two free throws from O'Neal that made it 102-93 with three minutes to go.
The Lakers' third straight crown will likely not be remembered for the sweep against the Nets as it will be for the shot that likely saved their season in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
With Sacramento holding a 2-1 advantage in that series, the Lakers were saved from going down by two by a buzzer-beating, game-winning shot from Robert Horry. Although Sacramento won Game 5, the Lakers came back to win the deciding contest in overtime and then made the NBA Finals a formality.
"We have nothing to be ashemed of," said New Jersey coach Byron Scott. "We had a fantastic season. We plan on learning from this and growing from this. Maybe we can get back and play these guys again and have a different story.
"Hopefully, this pain will make our guys better players."
