The New Jersey Nets finally could get down to business.

They finally could lock in on the Spurs, their opponent in the NBA Finals. They could focus on watching tape of only one team ? not two ? and begin to set their game plan.

A day after the Spurs rallied to put down the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals, the Nets also could begin to answer the tough questions amid an ever-increasing media blitz.

Such as, how do you plan to stop Steve Kerr?

"I think we're going to have to go back and watch some old video of when he was with the Bulls," Nets coach Byron Scott said of the man whose late heroics lifted the Spurs on Thursday.

"But I'll tell you one thing," he added with a smile, "we won't rotate off him. Ever."

After two days of rest, four days of scrimmages and countless hours speculating on the identity of their opponent in the N.B.A. finals, the Nets could officially focus today on their ultimate matchup of the season.

The Nets, who were swept by the Lakers in last year's finals, do not feel overmatched this time.

San Antonio entered the finals Thursday night, with Steve Kerr helping the Spurs close out the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.

The series will begin in San Antonio on Wednesday, and the teams know the title could be decided by two marquee duels: Tim Duncan versus Kenyon Martin and Jason Kidd versus Tony Parker.

The Spurs were hung over from their loss two nights earlier and hungry. So early Wednesday night, Steve Kerr made reservations at a local Italian restaurant and invited the team. Several of the players said they would come, including Tony Parker.

But just moments before the group left, Parker called Kerr and told him he changed his mind. He wanted to stay in and order room service.

It just might have been the best decision he ever made.

Parker ordered the cr?me br?l?e, woke up vomiting and found himself on the bench Thursday night, out of energy and nursing a stomach virus.

With less than 11 minutes left, his team down 13 points and the Western Conference finals suddenly looking like it was going seven, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called on a guy who knows a few things about Game 6 heroics.

Steve Kerr?

Tony Parker missed Thursday morning's shootaround after becoming ill Wednesday night.

He still started Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks, though.

"He's going to play no matter what his endurance is," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. according to the Associated Press. "They put him on an IV all day to put some liquid in his body. Hopefully it'll be enough for him to maintain."

Parker began vomiting and suffering from other flulike symptoms Wednesday night, Popovich said. He stayed at the hotel Thursday morning while the rest of the team worked at American Airlines Center.

Making the exit into summer is never easy. But this way? This way was gruesome, not to mention humiliating. And starting today, that's what the Mavericks will have to live with, and live down, for more weeks and months than at the moment they care to even think about.

But on the other hand, how about that Steve Kerr, the 37-year-old savior of the Spurs here Thursday night, and the shocking architect of a San Antonio fourth-quarter comeback? Yes, this time it was a Spurs' comeback.

In a role reversal, the Mavs collapsed.

"The last thing we wanted was the lead," joked Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

In these Western Conference Finals, Pop had a point.

The Spurs blew away a 13-point deficit, Kerr took over the game on both ends of the floor, and Game 6 ended with San Antonio headed for the NBA Finals via a 90-78 victory.

Left dazed was a wild New Arena crowd that had experienced a massive emotional swing. What the heck happened?

Mavericks forward Walt Williams arrived at American Airlines Center on Thursday wearing a John Elway throwback jersey. Elway, the former Denver Broncos quarterback, set an NFL record with 47 career comebacks.

"Wow!" Williams said. "I didn't even know that. I just happened to grab that one."

The shirt almost fit the Mavericks again. But the NBA's Comeback Kids finally ran out of gas, out of luck and out of rallies. The Mavericks blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead.

The Mavs, who had overcome double-digit deficits in six playoff games, lost to the San Antonio Spurs 90-78 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. A capacity crowd of 20,812, some of whom had paid scalpers as much as $1,000 for a ticket, banged ThunderStix and yelled until the end of the series, won by the Spurs 4-2.

The San Antonio Spurs know a thing or three about fourth-quarter collapses. It has been the story line of their postseason, personified by an epic debacle in Game 5 when they blew a 19-point lead to an undermanned Dallas Mavericks team.

Must've been contagious. Because with a chance to extend the series to seven games Thursday, the Mavs broke down like an old car in the fourth quarter. In a Western Conference finals in which the home court was a disadvantage --- the home team won just one game --- the Spurs advanced to their first NBA Finals since 1999 by --- what else? ---defeating the Mavericks on the road 90-78.

Spurs guard Stephen Jackson scored a career-playoff-high 24 points and kept playing while most of his teammates sleepwalked through the first three quarters. His energy spread to reserve Steve Kerr, who came off the bench cold but quickly heated up during a stunning 23-0 fourth-quarter run.

Kerr, 37, was playing because Spurs point guard Tony Parker was fighting food poisoning and backup Speedy Claxton was mostly ineffective. Dallas built its lead to 55-42 in the third period after Claxton threw away passes on two of three possessions, then had his shot blocked on the next.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich then turned to his third-string point guard, Kerr, a 14-year veteran who won three championship rings with the Chicago Bulls and one with the Spurs in 1999. He sank three of his team's six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Spurs erased a 13-point deficit and outscored the Mavs 34-9 in the period.

Jason Kidd is going to San Antonio after all. But Kidd is heading to Alamo City to hunt for a championship, not a house.

The long wait is over. The Nets finally know their Finals opponent, the Spurs, who took care of business in Dallas last night in a spectacular fourth-quarter domination of the Mavs that netted a 90-78 Game 6 clincher.

The Nets-Spurs Final begins Wednesday in San Antonio - highlighted by the ironic battle between Kidd and Tony Parker and the epic confrontation between scorching Kenyon Martin against Tim Duncan.

Yesterday, Kidd, who has been rumored to be an offseason free-agent target of the Spurs (to replace Parker), said the French point guard is better than he was at that age.

Dirk Nowitzki and coach Don Nelson reiterated Wednesday that the Mavericks' all-star will not play in Game 6 on Thursday night unless he is 100 percent.

But defining 100 percent may be the difficult part of that equation.

Nowitzki will give his sprained left knee a test drive before Game 6. How he feels after lobbing a few shots and running the floor will determine whether or not he suits up against the Spurs.

"The decision is pretty much mine and Nellie's," Nowitzki said as he rested the knee for the fifth consecutive day. "The doctor pretty much cleared me as long as I can tolerate the pain. We'll talk before the game. It's pretty much 50-50 [that he'll play]. I'll try to get some shots up before the game. If it feels great, I'll play. If it doesn't, I won't."

Their 19-point lead was already long gone, their trip to the NBA Finals postponed for at least two days, when the Spurs mercifully ended Dallas' scoring binge Tuesday night by calling timeout.

Bruce Bowen, drenched in sweat and frustrated as ever, took a seat on the scorer's table, then listened to a fan mock the Spurs for their performance. Bowen turned and told him to shut up.

"Just play your game!" the fan yelled back.

"Shut up!"