Laker fan here:
Yes, the league rigged that series so that we won and the Kings lost.
Even with a Prime Shaq and Kobe, the Kings were the better team. There is a documentary that went around early YouTube showing a couple of damning pieces of evidence. One of the most interesting bits was in the game where Vlade Divac tipped the rebound to Horry for the shot, the half-court shot Samaki Walker took at halftime shouldn't have counted.
That shot, along with a few others that year, was THE REASON the NBA decided to put lights on the backboard, so that replay would show if a player's hand was still on the ball when the clock went to zero.
We literally won that game on a three point shot
Can't do anything about it now