Finally, the Finals

They overtook a speeding team like radar waves, coming up suddenly in the Suns' rear-view with suffocating defense and a surprise scoring kick. Now the team that had to fight for its dap all season has one week to bask in the light glinting off the Western Conference NBA trophy. San Antonio's Spurs open their third title series next Thursday night, filling the town with pride and the SBC Center's seats with butts.

But the team won't sell a single Finals ticket at the arena. To buy one you have to sign up for a random ticket number at Ticketmaster's Ticket Center locations around San Antone. They call out a number at noon on Saturday, and that number holder becomes first in line, limit four tickets. If it's 37, and you hold 36, you're last in line. Or you can call at noon on Saturday and take your chances in the phone lottery, or push through the spurs.com or ticketmaster.com Web sites. It's worth it to feel the energy of 18,000 people focused on one outcome, blown away by the maniac drive of Manu, snarling for the ball and not stopping until he's on the floor or the ball has sailed through the hoop. I got to see him in that building once this year, against Houston. He scored six points in 2:11 to carry the Spurs out of a 79-76 squeaker lead. Around a couple of Tony Parker steals and baskets, Manu led the Spurs to a 12-point lead in 141 seconds.

Yeah, they can score that fast this year, even against a team that can D-up like the Rockets. So the Finals will be worth our money and time, cuz a fan never knows when a postseason run can dry up and leave you short of the title round. Sometimes it just takes a miracle shot with 0.4 seconds left, like the one Abby and I watched down in SBC last year when the Lakers rubbed out the Spurs' hope of a repeat. I can admit it — I want to be present for an antidote to that kind of moment: late-game magic to deliver a third win to keep us alive, or — dare I dream it — the confetti raining down after the title game.

We managed two games' worth of Finals in 2003, our first championship tickets, when David Robinson was wrapping up his career with a second championship ring drive. It only took DSL-speed Internet service and leaving the Ticketmaster Web page loaded in the browser to get tickets for each game. Yeah, and a little luck, like anybody hopes for in sports.

We're holding back until Game 6 this time around. A sixth game in the Finals is just about a certainty for the Spurs, since they'll face a stronger defense from either Miami or Detroit. (My money is on the Pistons to repeat, since they've got championship experience from last year). That championship savvy led the Spurs past the Suns last night, as well as in the other three wins. The Suns stayed right in every game they lost, even to the last minute. But staying in a game is one level. Remaining focused to hold a lead — three times on the road, no less — is the next level one that comes easier when you've already taken two titles over the past six years.

Tim Duncan, the only Spur on the court who can claim that much championship experience, turned his game around in 48 hours. Monday night he was missing free throws (nine!), baskets in the paint, and his leadership touch. But then on the Suns' last night of their season, Duncan had more points before the half than he scored in all of Monday's game. At one point he scored 10 points in a row in the game's early going. He wanted to erase the TV highlight reels of his struggles. Two days after converting all 15 of his free throws, Duncan missed nine of 12. The Austin paper made fun of his struggles from Monday:

Note to NBA: stop production on the Tim Duncan free-throw instruction video. Hold off, for now, on engraving the Western Conference championship trophy.

In last night's close-out game, Tim made three of four free throws.

Timmy also led the team to the Finals in his classic style: He led the Spurs Wednesday in minutes played, field goals made, rebounds, blocked shots and offensive rebounds. He said afterward he wanted to "rectify" the mistakes of his Monday night in front of the local fans. that's the kind of old-school leader the Spurs count upon, a guy who takes the burden of defeat on himself.

He didn't have to carry his team, though. The top reason the Spurs got beyond the Suns — go-go guys who are going to be back in the late rounds of the playoffs for years to come — that reason was Manu Ginolili, muscling rebounds, driving to the basket for foul shots, dishing dimes out when the defense swarmed him.

Finally, Tony Parker's perimeter shot arrived. Though he had a rough 8-21 night overall, the two 3-pointers he sank halfway through the third quarter let the Spurs pull away during a quarter where San Antonio usually struggles. MVP Steve Nash hit a jumper to pull the Suns within three and the arena in Phoenix exploded. San Antonio didn't take a timeout. They focused to run off 21 seconds of shot clock and then Parker delivered, twice in the next 32 seconds, his second shot set up by a Robert Horry steal:

7:24
Steve Nash makes 15 ft jumper. 59-56

7:07
Tony Parker makes three point jumper. 62-56

7:03
Amare Stoudemire loses ball, stolen by Robert Horry.

6:48
Tony Parker makes 25-ft three point jumper. 65-56

6:46
Phoenix Full Timeout.

That sequence made me turn to Abby and say, "They can win this game tonight." Because Parker showed the hand the Spurs couldn't play Monday, and he tipped the balance of power on a night when Amare Stoudemire took whatever he wanted at the basket for the Suns — except for a clutch 3-pointer that rimmed out with 13 seconds left. That basket that would have pulled Phoenix within one possession. It was the kind of miss that Horry experienced against the Spurs in 2003, a ball that was halfway down and popped out, along with the Suns' hopes for a fairytale season. He's now got a chance to pad his championship resume, with a third team, for his sixth ring.

Meanwhile we've got a week off from the delicious tension, Abby and I, time to let our heart-rates recede and enjoy the grappling in Miami and Detroit throughout this weekend. We'll take either opponent, because the Spurs are past the Suns. The right kind of D-up basketball prevailed, for now. Having beaten the three hottest offensive teams in the NBA to get to the Finals, San Antonio's arena will now thrum with defense, the rippling notes of "Zombie Nation" during the timeouts, and the surge of Spurs experience in the hardest of moments. We needed our own Finals experience to weather gales of emotion while watching on TV, then listening to the WOAI radio call from masterful Bill Schoening. This is a broadcaster so good in just his fourth season of NBA basketball that he doesn't need a color commentator. (Here's a Real Player clip of an interview of him during the Spurs last title season, in 2003.) When the going gets nervy during close games, Bill's call, full of detail and empathetic emotion, makes it tolerable for us rabid fans.

Basketball has at least four more games for a team fast enough to overtake and tough enough to win it all. In San Antonio you can buy D-Rags, black cloth to wave and Spur on the defense.

Down here, we believe it's D-fense that wins titles.

But the Suns series proved the Spurs can run, too. They have Timmy, Manu to slash and steal the ball, Parker to teardrop, and Big Shot Bob Horry to make crucial steals and 3-pointers. It might all be enough to get past those Wallace Boys from Detroit, or Shaq and The Flash from Miami.

Spurs in Six, I hope, just like the last time they won it all.