Los Angeles Lakers: 30 greatest individual performances in team history: 14. Shaquille O’Neal made his mark
The Los Angeles Lakers ran through the Western Conference on their way to the 2000 NBA title. While they essentially made it look easy, they had a difficult time with one team, in particular, the Sacramento Kings.
It took Game 5 heroics from both Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal to finally put them away. So when the two squared off for the second year in a row, many were expecting the same knockdown, drag-out affair. With that said, O’Neal wanted to prove a point that the Kings simply weren’t on their level.
With Vlade Divac manning the middle, O’Neal demanded the ball every time down and the Lakers were smart to hand it to him. The Lakers big man cooked Divac, Chris Webber and whomever else they threw at him. He finished the game with 44 points, 21 boards, including 11 on the offensive end, and racked up seven blocks. Only O’Neal and fellow Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon, registered a game in which they scored over 40 points, grabbed over 20 rebounds and registered over five blocks.
Surprisingly, considering how well they matched up, the Lakers didn’t lose a single game to the Kings and lost only once during their playoff run. O’Neal had officially stopped the notion that the Kings could compete with the Lakers after setting the tone in Game 1.