Tuesday, October 16, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona The 2001 NLCS began with a pitching matchup of multiple-Cy Young Award winners Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux.

Wednesday, October 17, 2001 at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, Arizona The Braves responded to Johnson's dominating performance with one of their own from Tom Glavine.

Glavine went seven innings, scattering five hits and giving up one run in the sixth when Reggie Sanders walked with two outs and scored two batters later on Matt Williams's single.

In the top of the seventh, Andruw Jones walked two outs off of Batista before Javy López hit a two-run homer to make it 3–1.

Steve Karsay and John Smoltz pitched perfect eighth and ninth, respectively as the Braves' win tied the series 1–1 heading to Atlanta.

Atlanta got a run in the fourth when Marcus Giles hit a leadoff double and scored on Chipper Jones's one-out single, but with the bases loaded with one out, Steve Reed relieved Burkett and a Chipper Jones error at third base on Matt Williams's groundball allowed two runs to score.

Saturday, October 20, 2001 at Turner Field in Atlanta Looking to tie the series, Bobby Cox started Greg Maddux on short rest.

The Braves struck first off of Diamondback starter Albie Lopez when Marcus Giles walked to lead off the first and scored on RBI double by Chipper Jones.

The Braves loaded the bases in the bottom half on three straight leadoff singles off of Jason Marquis, but Byung-Hyun Kim in relief allowed just one run on Javy López's double play.

However, Arizona answered right back in the top of the fifth when Erubiel Durazo hit a two-out two-run blast off Glavine to make it 3–1, one run unearned.

Locally, the NLCS was called on KTAR-AM in Phoenix by Greg Schulte, Jeff Munn, Rod Allen and Jim Traber, and on WSB-AM in Atlanta by Pete Van Wieren, Skip Caray, Don Sutton, and Joe Simpson.

By their 2004 and 2005 teams, the Braves gave significant playing time to their younger players and had moved on from star veterans such as Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Gary Sheffield, and Javy Lopez.

Bobby Cox would retire in 2010, leading managers all-time in multiple categories, such as playoff appearances, 100-win seasons (shared at six with John McGraw), and ejections, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.