Spurs Go From Glory to Painful Exit

Scratch another wagon train.

For the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs, the cavalry never showed. Tim Duncan finished the series the same way he started it, in street clothes, watching Jason Kidd, who did return, lead the Phoenix Suns to an 89-78 victory Tuesday night and a berth in the next round of the Western Conference playoffs. The Suns won the best-of-five series, 3-1.

Kidd, making his debut as a blond after five weeks off because of a broken left ankle, started, went 31 minutes, made four of five shots and had 10 assists, seven in the fourth quarter.

“This was something that was going to take me through the summer,” he said of his new dyed hair, “because I thought my season was over . . .

“I’m having a great time with it. The guys [his teammates] are having a great time with it too.”

Said Spur Coach Gregg Popovich: “It wasn’t just an emotional lift he gave them. He played his fanny off. He did a lot of great things.”

Said Sun Coach Scott Skiles, grinning, of Kidd: “What good is he if he can’t go 48?”

What a heart-warming script.

Who wrote it, Phil Jackson?

Assuming the Lakers meet anyone in the second round, they preferred any scenario to a Duncan return and a San Antonio victory in this series, which would have matched them against the Spurs, who swept them last spring.

Instead, if the Lakers get there, they’ll meet the Suns, a team they swept, 4-0, in the regular season, with Shaquille O’Neal averaging 33 points a game.

The Spurs have Twin Towers. The Suns have one tower, or none, depending on your opinion of Luc Longley.

But the Suns have a lot of talented players and when Popovich announced Duncan wouldn’t play, and Skiles said Kidd would, the odds tilted in the home team’s favor and stayed there.

The Spur party line all along has been that the players didn’t expect Duncan back and weren’t counting on him. In real life, they were waiting and hoping.

But Duncan couldn’t make it back from torn cartilage in his left knee.

Without him, the Spurs seemed deflated. They took an early 19-8 lead while the Suns were getting over their jitters and after that, they just seemed to hang on.

Meanwhile, Kidd was getting used to playing again. He made plays from the beginning but came out seven minutes into the game, exhausted.

“I felt great,” Kidd said. “It was just after the first few minutes, I felt like I smoked a pack of cigars or cigarettes.”

As if to replicate their season, the Spurs, who had already lost Jerome Kersey (foot) in this series, lost another reserve forward, Malik Rose, to a knee injury in the second quarter, forcing Popovich to field three and four-guard lineups. Resting Robinson at the start of the fourth quarter, he had a unit that comprised of Sean Elliott, Samaki Walker, Derrick Dial, Jaren Jackson and Antonio Daniels.

And for a signature gaffe, you couldn’t do much better than the third-quarter play when Robinson went over to pick up a rolling loose ball, bent over . . . and missed it.

So much for their title defense. The Spurs became the first champion since the 1983 76ers to win a title and exit in the first round the following season.

“It’s been a frustrating season from the beginning,” said Popovich. “But people are dealt different circumstances every year. . . . A lot of circumstances weren’t going to line up for us this year.”

And their chances against the Suns, if Duncan had played?

“It doesn’t matter,” said Popovich. “The Suns won. They did a hell of a job. It’s totally inappropriate to talk about this, that and the other.”

As Skiles noted, the Suns are missing Tom Gugliotta and Rex Chapman too, even if they don’t add up to a Duncan. On the plus side, they have their heart and soul, Kidd, back.

“Tomorrow is going to be an important day for me,” said Kidd. “Thirty minutes playing an NBA game is a lot on an ankle that had to be repaired. So we’ll see how I feel tomorrow.

“The good thing is, I’m young. I hope I heal fast.”

Too fast for the Spurs, anyway. With some championship defenses, it goes like that.