Well, I'm going to throw my $.02 in on the 2002 Laker team - because it's not the team that only lost 1 game. That team would be the 2001 Laker team.
I think the 1983 Sixer team (that also only lost 1 game) is a good match for the 2001 Laker team, and if any team could stop both Shaq and Kobe, then this would be the team. The reason? Their press. If the game slowed down into a half-court game, the 1983 Sixer team would get DESTROYED by the 2001 Laker team, since the Sixers wouldn't be able to stop either Shaq OR Kobe. But Shaq and Kobe aren't all that big of scoring threats when they don't have the ball. The press falling back into the trap that the 1983 Sixers used was PHENOMENAL, and once that press and trap got going, it started feeding itself. I've never seen a team at any level - before or since - that had that effective of a combination of a press and a trap.
Once Bobby Jones came in for Iavaroni and Clint Richardson came in for Andrew Toney (and sometimes, Clemon Johnson came in for Moses Malone), you had a stellar defensive team out there, with Richardson and Cheeks at the guards, Erving and Jones at the forwards, and either Malone and his rebounding or Johnson and his shot-blocking at the back. And when you look at the 2001 Lakers, their Achilles heel was at point guard. Brian Shaw, Ron Harper, Derek Fisher, and Mike Penberthy were all more of shooters than ball-handlers making them vulnerable to the press, and Tyronn Lue, while a skilled dribbler, was an accelerator - which means he's a prime victim for a trap. The Lakers would have to respond by putting the ball in the hands of Kobe Bryant, in hopes he could get it through the press, plus set up something against the trap. The one team that bothered the 1983 Sixers at all was the Milwaukee Bucks, and it's easy to see why: Paul Pressey at point guard (this is before his conversion to "point forward"), Sidney Moncrief at the 2, Marques Johnson at the 3, Alton Lister at the 4, and Bob Lanier at the 5 - this team was *HUGE*, defensively oriented, and wanted to slow the pace to a crawl and eat you up with rebounding. Pressey was a bit weak as a ball-handler at point, but Marques Johnson was exceptional at the 3, and Moncrief was better than average at the 2, and Bob Lanier, as a center, was actually pretty good, despite being as slow as he was at that time. And you had guys like Phil Ford, and Charlie Criss on the bench, and I'm pretty sure that they had Brian Winters (combo guard) and another point guard, too (can't remember who). So you're talking a team that wasn't worried about how quickly they got into their offense...heck, it may take Lanier the entire 10 seconds just to get to the other side of half court WITHOUT the ball. And offensively, they just ate away at the clock, and let whichever of Moncrief, Johnson, or Lanier had the ball just use their offensive talent.
The 2001 Lakers couldn't run on the 1983 Sixers, and would have trouble getting in to the triangle. Of course, if they could break the press and get into the offense before Philadelphia could drop back into the trap, they'd destroy Philadelphia, because Malone, while a work horse and a brute, wouldn't wear O'Neal down the way he wore other centers down, and Philadelphia wouldn't have a match for Kobe on the defensive end (and would probably revert to the failed experiment of Dr. J at the 2-guard which got them destroyed against San An and George Gervin in the Eastern Conference playoffs in 1979). If it turned into an offensive series, the 2001 Lakers would destroy the 76ers...but Philadelphia's press and trap would work to prevent it from becoming an offensive series.
That's probably the best match-up of champions that you'd ever see...and it would be a blow-out - one way or the other.
