Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the second consecutive year, after outstanding performances averaging 33.0 points, 15.8 rebounds, and 3.4 blocks per game.

The Lakers began the 2001 NBA Playoffs versus the team against whom they played the previous year in the Western Conference finals, the Portland Trail Blazers.

The 76ers, seeded number 1 in the Eastern Conference, had just come out of two straight seven-game series against the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks.

[1] Despite this, during the first game, the trio of Iverson, Dikembe Mutombo and Eric Snow, coming hot off a long Eastern Conference championship road, beat the Lakers in overtime, showcasing their endurance.

The Lakers played fantastically during the 4th quarter, and Tyronn Lue came off the bench and limited Iverson to merely 3 points and had 3 assists and 2 steals of his own.

Raja Bell then hit a tough layup to answer, followed by Iverson scoring 7 straight points, including a three pointer to give them the lead.

Despite their points, the 76ers kept a close lead as Larry Brown ran over 10 plays searching for the right quartet, and the fact that all the Lakers besides Bryant and O'Neal were shooting only at 27%.

Philadelphia trimmed a nine-point Laker lead with just over seven minutes to play to one point three separate times in the final two minutes, having fouled out LA starters Shaquille O'Neal (30 points, 12 rebounds) and Derek Fisher in the process, but they were never able to tie or take the lead despite holding multiple possessions with a chance to do so down the stretch.

Allen Iverson finished with a game-high 35 points; he made one of two free throws to trim the lead to one at 86–85 just outside of two minutes to play.

After Rick Fox also split a pair of foul shots for LA, Iverson turned the ball over on the Sixers' ensuing possession, and Kobe Bryant answered with running floater to stretch the lead back to four.

The 2001 NBA Finals was aired in the United States on NBC (including KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and WCAU in Philadelphia), with Marv Albert and Doug Collins on play-by-play and color commentary respectively.

Albert, who last worked the Finals for NBC Sports in 1997, had been rehired by the network in 1999, two years after a sex scandal led to his dismissal.

As for the Sixers, they would never challenge for the title again in the Allen Iverson era, with the team reaching the playoffs only twice for the next four years, winning only one series.