Question : Is there a way to unlock sql 2000 processes rather than killing it?

Currently, I running sql 2000 sp4 enterprise edition of which I have java applications that sits on top of it.
The problem I'm having is that as more applications are being used on this system the more and more locks occur in our database.  Is there a command or way to remove the locks without killing them?

Answer : Is there a way to unlock sql 2000 processes rather than killing it?

puppydogbuddy is the only expert who responded and provided references that more than answered
the question.  As previously stated, the cited reference sources deal with the question from 2 angles: preventing lock conflicts from ocurring and with de-escalating existing lock conflicts.  Example of command syntax to de-escalate:

You can override how SQL Server performs locking on a table by using the SP_INDEXOPTION command. Below is an example of code you can run to tell SQL Server to use page locking, not row locks, for a specific table:

SP_INDEXOPTION 'table_name', 'AllowRowLocks', FALSE
GO
SP_INDEXOPTION 'table_name', 'AllowPageLocks', FALSE
GO

This code turns off both row and page locking for the table, thus only table locking is available. [7.0, 2000, 2005] Updated 9-18-2006