Payback.

That's what Dikembe Mutombo attained last night, swatting away a dunk attempt by Malik Rose late in the first quarter of the Nets' desperation 77-76 victory over the Spurs in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

"After all this trash talking and all this reading what happened about Mutombo getting dunked on by Malik Rose, I was looking forward to see who was going to come in the paint and dunk on me again," Mutombo said.

In Game 3, Rose rose up and slammed one home over a late-arriving Mutombo, a play Rose and the Spurs delighted in recounting since. That didn't sit well with the Nets' 7-2 enforcer, who had been a non-entity for much of his first season with the team but now is a key member of coach Byron Scott's Finals rotation.

"Dikembe in the second half, defensively, was fantastic," Scott said.