kobe bryant destroying the 01 spurs in the POs

[Braincells]

What matters is he dominated strong competition year after year in the Western conference. I shudder to think how amazing Kobe would have been playing for an eastern conference team. Spurs could have easily been the champs that year. Lakers never had an easy trip to the finals. That's why the finals series were a joke.

This was also 21 year old Kobe decimating the twin tower Spur defense at their best. He had a notable highlight in that series where he dunked on both Robinson and Duncan.

[riseagainst]

He had a notable highlight in that series where he dunked on both Robinson and Duncan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQmbW7xicTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAKGbrqjzY4

[West-Side]

San Antonio came into that series with the best record and also the top ranked defense in the league that year. This series was easily viewed as the real NBA championship by most people.

One of the things that helped the Lakers significantly in the series was the hot shooting of Derek Fisher from the three-point line, which I believe he made 15 of his 20 fga's in the series. But overall, it was a combination of the Spurs having injuries on the perimeter, hot shooting from Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant simply playing superb basketball. Kobe had a tendency to play better on the road during that time and Shaq would do more domination at home, mostly because Shaq would regularly get into foul trouble on the road due to his bruising style.

It was remarkable to hear Shaq call Kobe the best player in the league during/after that series given their tumultuous history together, especially with Shaq being the MVP just the previous year.

Shaquille was injured too and countless other Lakers.
They were not 100%.

Spurs got destroyed.
Not only did they get swept but it was the largest margin of victory in league history, to this day.

Kobe/Shaq plus Fish were just spectacular.
Before that Philly loss in OT; LA won 19 straight.
I still remember Iverson's cocky ass after game 1.