DUNCAN DOESN'T PLAY LIKE MVP.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

SAN ANTONIO - Tim Duncan's reign as the world's greatest basketball player lasted less than a week.

Thursday, Duncan had been named the NBA's Most Valuable Player after a close vote. Friday, he had hoisted the MVP trophy before 35,000 hometown fans. Sunday, he abdicated the throne.

It happened quietly, without speech-making, in the fourth quarter of a pivotal playoff game, and it's the reason San Antonio gave away a 10-point lead in the final seven minutes and lost to the Lakers 87-85.

For three quarters, Duncan had been justifying his award, convincing all those fans in New Jersey and Los Angeles who thought the Nets' Jason Kidd or the Lakers' Shaquille O'Neal had been robbed. As late afternoon turned into evening under the giant Alamodome, Duncan was the game's leading scorer, rebounder, assist-giver and shot-blocker. He was carrying his team the way an MVP must.

And then the crown slipped.

Over and over, in the last 12 minutes, the ball went to Duncan in the post. Over and over, he was set upon by Lakers defenders. Over and over, he passed the ball back out.

``I was trying to be patient, trying to find open (teammates),'' Duncan said later.

In the quarter, those teammates took 15 shots and made only three.

The MVP took only two shots and made none.

The MVP put up the final, ofalance attempt from 20 feet away and barely grazed the rim.

Then the MVP pulled his jersey up over his head, briefly hiding his face from the crowd, before making a slow and slump-shouldered walk to the locker room.

The Spurs trailed 3-1 in the best-of-seven quarterfinal series, even though Tim Duncan had done three-quarters of everything he could to prevent it.

``I turned down a couple of looks (shots) earlier than I should have,'' Duncan admitted afterward. ``I should have been more selfish and taken the shots.''

Duncan finished with a game-high 30 points, game-high six assists, game-high four blocks and game-high-tying 11 rebounds.

In the fourth quarter, he had three points and one assist and was whistled for an offensive foul when he charged into Robert Horry in the lane with 46.2 seconds to play and the game tied 85-85.

His late-game heroism was confined to stuffing an O'Neal shot and breaking up an Horry lob pass.

Now, I don't know whether Shaq deserved the MVP award this season. But I do know that Shaq would not have settled for two shots in the fourth quarter with the season on the line. I don't know whether Duncan could have scored with Lakers defenders hanging all over him. But I do know that he should have tried.

Everybody in both locker rooms tried to be delicate about it. Nobody wanted to embarrass Tim Duncan of all people. He's too good a man and too good a player to deserve that.

So Duncan's fellow Spurs took the blame for their failure to sink the jump shots Duncan tried to give them.

``What he did was the best he could do,'' San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. ``If you kick it out of the post and (the outside shot) goes in, it's a great play. If it doesn't, everybody thinks you made a mistake.''

And the Lakers took credit for denying Duncan the shots with tougher defense in the fourth, saying they knew an unselfish guy like him would give up the ball, exactly as they wanted him to do.

``In the fourth quarter we were going to pay him the respect he deserves,'' Lakers forward Rick Fox said. ``We were going to send people at him, make him make the right, unselfish play, which he's always going to do. He's going to look for a teammate that's open. It's up to them to make shots.''

That's what's known as a backhanded compliment.

Duncan has an available excuse. He isn't surrounded by the talent Shaq is. Duncan has David Robinson in decline. Shaq has Kobe Bryant on the rise.

Of course, MVPs don't make excuses.

``This team,'' Lakers forward Samaki Walker said of the Spurs, ``is predicated on Tim Duncan being the MVP.

``Sometimes you feel he gets enough touches in the game. But, hey, this team is predicated on what Tim Duncan does. ... He's trying to do the right thing and get other guys involved in the game. But sometimes you have to be a little selfish.''

If he won't take the shots, he should give back the trophy.

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Photo:

As he was most of the fourth quarter, San Antonio's Tim Duncan goes incognito after the Spurs lose Game 4 Sunday.

William Luther/Associated Press