Spurs kicked it up notch

SAN ANTONIO -- Sure, there have been nights when he has shone brighter and shot a lot better. There have been nights when he thoroughly dominated, not just in stretches. Just ask the Nets, whom he vaporized in 2003. Or the Knicks, whom he similarly torched in 1999.

Tim Duncan was merely good enough in Game 7 of the NBA Finals Thursday night -- and that's all he needed to be. When the Spurs' season was on the verge of an embarrassing collapse in the third quarter, it was Duncan who changed the complexion of the game and, by extension, the outcome of the series. After 2 1/2 quarters of missed shots, miscues, and missed opportunities, the man they call The Big Fundamental took control, scoring 17 of his 25 points in the final 18 minutes 18 seconds.

Minutes after San Antonio's 81-74 title clincher, it was Duncan, again, who accepted the MVP trophy. That's three trophies for as many visits to the NBA Finals. Few could argue he wasn't deserving, although Manu Ginobili also got some votes and Duncan even suggested splitting the award. In other words, it wasn't an open-and-shut case for Duncan this time around, as it had been the previous two times. He actually went almost 14 minutes without scoring in Game 7 on a night when he had to have an impact.

''The whole game was about perseverance, sticking to it, keeping it going," said Duncan, who who connected on 10 of 27 field goals. ''We just stuck with it. We just kept pushing. We didn't do anything special. We believed in what we were doing and we believed that if we did it the right way, we could get it done."

Over the seven games, Duncan averaged 20.6 points, 14.1 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks a game. Those are excellent numbers for most anyone, but Duncan had averaged 23.9 points a game in his career in the playoffs heading into this postseason. He had always dominated. Yet the word ''quiet" was tossed around quite often to describe his game. He was putting up numbers, but his team wasn't winning. His own coach, Gregg Popovich, said the Spurs ''forgot" about Duncan in Game 6. How do you forget a guy like Tim Duncan?

This was easily the most difficult Finals for Duncan. He was up against a terrific defensive team and exceptional defensive big men, which explains why he shot an uncharacteristic 41.9 percent from the field. At times, it was a struggle to watch him try to maneuver in the low post. He shot 52.2 percent in the playoffs last year and 52.9 percent in their title run in 2003.

And, really, for the first time in his three Finals appearances, Duncan came under criticism. When the Spurs won, it was always someone else who led the way, Ginobili in the first two victories and the incomparable Robert Horry in Game 5, bailing out the free throw-missing Duncan. When they lost, the attention inevitably fell on Duncan. Who can forget the shot of Popovich consoling him on the bench in the waning moments of the Game 4 blowout loss in Detroit. For the first time, people were talking. He wasn't assertive enough. The Pistons were taking him out of his game. Some of it was probably even a little bit true. Not that Duncan heard it, read it, saw it, or, if he did, believed any of it.

''I doubt that he knew somebody was criticizing him, because he's not that kind of guy," Ginobili said. ''He's [not] going to be worried about what people say. But he always feels responsible; he's so hard on himself every time he doesn't play good that I knew, sooner or later, he was going to show up."

And did he show. With San Antonio down by 9 points in the third (a pretty sizable deficit given the difficulty both teams had scoring), it was Duncan who got the Spurs -- and the crowd -- back into the game. He simply would not let them lose. In an 18-8 run, Duncan scored 12 points, including two 3-point plays. By the time the third quarter ended, the 9-point lead was gone -- and so were the Pistons. Detroit managed just 17 points in the fourth quarter and had one assist.

''He put his team on his shoulders and carried them to the championship. That's what great players do," Detroit's Ben Wallace said.

Agreed Spurs guard Brent Barry, ''Tim was demonstrative and focused and all the things that people said he wasn't and isn't in the series, and that's why he's the MVP once again."

In the fourth quarter, Duncan added 5 points (along with, ahem, three of his five turnovers) and set up Ginobili and Bruce Bowen for huge 3-pointers.

''We didn't have the greatest game," Duncan said. ''We scored 81 points, which is pretty decent for us, but we didn't have the greatest game where we ran away from anybody. But we stuck with it."

Said Popovich, ''When you call plays or do things on the court, it always works better when he's out there. I do the same things with someone else and it doesn't work. Obviously, Tim is a factor. He's the reason things go. If he scores, that's great. If he doesn't, he's spacing the floor, getting the ball to people who do score. And he's always rebounding and playing defense. His complete game is so sound, so fundamental, so unnoticed at times, because if he doesn't score, people think, well, he didn't do anything. But he was incredible for us."