Of course Game 3 was close.

The New Jersey Nets trailed by 13 points in the first quarter Sunday night at home, just as they had fallen into big early holes in their previous two ill-advised baby steps in the NBA Finals, and, naturally, something would happen to make things interesting. Or make the Los Angeles Lakers disinterested. That's how it is this time around.

	Shaquille O'Neal has been hurting all season, but he's been dominating in the Finals.

Winning has not gotten boring, but it has gotten different on the doorstep of another championship. Businesslike. That's what they call it. Do what it takes -- and often just what it takes and nothing more -- clock out, go home. Threepeat after them.

Fe, fie, ho hum.

That No. 3 could come with a sweep is misleading, because nothing about the season for the Lakers as a whole has been dominating, and that's the unique mark this title will leave. Shaquille O'Neal has been playing hurt from they beginning ... they all had to ride in the chase car in the regular season while trying without success to catch Sacramento for the Pacific Division crown and best record in the league ... Portland stayed close in losing 3-0 in the first round ... San Antonio stayed close in losing 4-1 in the second round ... and the Kings got them all the way to overtime of Game 7 before a champion's composure made the difference.

Where there was once flash with the Lakers, there now is a grit. They tough it out. Playoff opponents don't get embarrassed anymore, merely dispatched, which is how everyone arrives at Wednesday night at the Meadowlands praising New Jersey for its heart and resolve in not collapsing like its interior defense and wondering about Los Angeles and its interest level. There was the 15-point lead in the first quarter of Game 1 and the 23-point lead in the second period that became a three-point edge with 4:47 remaining. Then, there was the 10-point lead in the first quarter of Game 2 and the 20-point lead in the third period that became a six-point curiosity with 7:39 left. Finally, there was the 13-point lead in the first quarter of Game 3 and the 14-point lead in the second period that became a two-point wakeup call with 0:34.4 showing.

The Nets keep sending out their three pinatas -- Todd MacCulloch, Jason Collins and Aaron Williams -- and keep getting the wreckage returned, but Shaquille O'Neal v. The World is where the mismatch ends in a series that could end with the greatest of all signs of a mismatch: 4-0. Anyone who is surprised hasn't been paying attention.

The Lakers have won 14 of 18 in the playoffs, and three times by more than seven points. Last Wednesday, given the chance to finally get both hands around an opponent's throat, New Jersey trailed by just four points with 3:08 left before falling off and the victorious coach, Phil Jackson, noted how "the Nets carried the action, especially in the second half." Sunday, it took gutting out a fourth quarter. They swept the Trail Blazers in the first round, but never won by more than eight points. They took out the Spurs in five games, but once while scoring 32 points in the first half, another time while trailing by 21 points before intermission and losing, and another time after falling back by 13 early in the second quarter before recovering.

This is not the steamroller of the past that by this point had flipped on the blinker and was merging into the fast lane -- last season going 3-0 against Portland, 4-0 against Sacramento, 4-0 against San Antonio and 4-1 against Philadelphia; the only time it got interesting coming when the 76ers won the opener. And they care not at all.

	“	Do we get bored? I think we search for a challenge. And when it's deserved, we rise to the occasion. ”
		— Rick Fox

"That's just what people say to convince themselves that we're not as good as we really are," guard Derek Fisher said. "For us to think about it would be a waste."

"Do we get bored?" said Rick Fox. "I think we search for a challenge. And when it's deserved, we rise to the occasion."

They have dangled a foot over the ledge on several occasions in recent weeks, against the Kings in the Western Conference final/Ralph Nader publicity grab and now against the Nets, becoming champions-in-waiting and a curiosity.

"The mood is more of a business-type mood than anything else," Fisher said of the prevailing atmosphere. "Coming to work and taking care of business at hand each day. It's a different approach. But we're still getting the job done.

"Before, there was more of a sense of newness, going all the way back to the first round that first year. Not knowing what to expect. What to expect with a specific series, what it takes to close out, what it takes to win on the road. We've been through all that now. ... This year, we know how to do what we need to do. It's just a matter of getting it done. We're not really concerned with how it looks or how many points we put on the scoreboard. It's just the win."

Not that they haven't had their Laker Moments. O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have buried the hatchet, somewhere else besides the back of each other's head, and things were serene on most emotional fronts, apart from a mid-season scuffle on the bus between Bryant and Samaki Walker. The concern most of the time, with two championships in tow and another as a good possibility, was the physical well-being of O'Neal. It was, at least, until the second round of the playoffs, when Jackson mentioned how "I had a heated conversation with Shaq, actually, about getting actively involved in chasing the ball down." Jackson soon downgraded the the conversation to give-and-take, only not before someone asked O'Neal a question one day and he told reporters to go ask Phil because he knows everything.

This has been a trying time for Shaq in particular. He has been pained all season by various toe and foot problems, his coach was climbing on him, and he's brawling with all sorts of forces of nature. It was before Game 1 against the Spurs, after all, when he showed with a cut on his left forearm and wouldn't say how it happened, apart from the explanation that he got it after seeing Spiderman trying to crawl up his bathroom wall, falling and cutting himself on some glass, adding "That's what happens when you cross superheroes." Oh, sure. That alibi again.

The same game, O'Neal gashed his right index finger on the rim while blocking a Tim Duncan and needed seven stitches. They were supposed to be taken out by a doctor before Game 5, the eventual clincher against San Antonio, except that O'Neal arrived at Staples Center with news that he had already removed the stitches himself. Still to be determined is whether the Green Hornet had sanitized the wound before wrapping it for the game. O'Neal then played 40 minutes and got 21 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks.

The Kings got their chance next, and even took a 3-2 lead. The Lakers hadn't faced elimination since the 2000 West final versus the Trail Blazers, and now there would have to be two such challenges in a row to advance. L.A. won won Game 6 at home to force a Shooutout at the Arco Corral. L.A. then got overtime in that Game 7 to forge a reputation.

The Lakers beat the Kings in those next five minutes, in the most pressured freeze frame of the season, because they had eight free throws and eight makes and because essentially the same five players who had gone all evening committed zero turnovers. Devean George replaced O'Neal for the final 14.6 seconds as the Lakers loaded up small at the end to meet the Kings pressure and intentional fouls to stop the clock, but it was Shaq, Fox, Robert Horry, Bryant and Fisher pushing to the finish line with an admirable calm. And, this was after a fourth quarter of 38.1 percent from the field and only one more attempt than Sacramento -- and L.A. still winning the period 27-26 to force overtime because the Lakers had two turnovers and were nine of 11 from the line. Four of the starters went the entire way, while Fisher got six minutes and Lindsey Hunter, Brian Shaw and George split the rest.

Seventeen minutes. Seventeen free throws in 19 tries. Two turnovers.

One ticket to the Finals punched.

"It wasn't pretty," Fox said. "But we still have the heart of a champion. We know how to win at this time of the year."

Of course they do.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.