They looked like the Nets of old and played like them, too.
Wearing retro uniforms, the Nets were undressed by Tim Duncan and the Spurs, 93-83, last night in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, moving San Antonio within one win of its second championship in four years.

Jason Kidd scored 29 points in his last home game before entering free agency, although only three of those points came in the fourth quarter. The Nets' best player of this postseason, Kenyon Martin, picked the wrong time to have his worst game of the playoffs and that proved to be too much to overcome.

Martin, battling flu-like symptoms for the past three days, scored just four points and turned the ball over eight times - three miscues coming in the last 3:21 after the Nets had gotten within four.

If Dikembe Mutombo's guarantee is to come to fruition, the Nets will have to do what no team has done before. Since the Finals went to the 2-3-2 format, no road team has ever won the last two games to win it all.

"It's not impossible," Byron Scott said of winning twice in San Antonio, where the Spurs are 7-4 in the playoffs.