Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- With less than nine minutes to play, the Nets owned a nine-point lead Sunday night.
Less than nine minutes stood between them and a Game 7, less than nine minutes until they could play for history --and the first championship of their 27 seasons in the NBA.
Then it all disappeared under a 19-0 Spurs' fourth-quarter blitz. The lead. The game. Their championship hopes.
Their season --and perhaps even Jason Kidd's tenure in a Nets uniform.
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Spurs 88, Nets 77 ended the NBA Finals in six games and gave Tim Duncan and David Robinson -- playing the final game of his 14-year career --and the Spurs their second championship in five seasons.
Duncan, who earned his second Finals MVP and became the ninth player in league history to win the championship and regular-season MVPs in the same year, finished just two blocked shots shy of an astounding quadruple-double with 21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and eight blocks. At that, he was the first player in 10 years to produce a Finals triple-double.
Robinson ended his career with 13 points and 17 rebounds, his high for this postseason, exiting with 35.6 seconds left to a rousing ovation at the same time Kidd exited with 21 points and seven assists.
Kidd, though, again had to carry the Nets virtually alone, from his point-guard spot.
