Can Shaq and the Lakers finally be the ones holding the broom?
Updated: June 12, 2002, 12:09 PM ET
By by Walter Lis, STATS. Inc.
With the Los Angeles Lakers on the verge of sweeping the New Jersey Nets for their third consecutive NBA championship, Phil Jackson's team is poised to take its rightful place in sports history. After an epic seven-game battle with the Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference Finals, the Lakers have pretty much dominated Jason Kidd and the Nets in the first three games of the NBA Finals.
Although most experts believed a Lakers-Nets series would result in an easy win for Shaquille O'Neal & Company, a four-game sweep still seemed unlikely. Especially when you consider that there have been only six best-of-seven series sweeps in NBA history, dating back to 1947. Ironically enough, the very first four-game sweep in Finals history came in 1959, when the Boston Celtics took four straight from the then Minneapolis Lakers.
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