SPURS NOTEBOOK: DUNCAN LEARNING TO BE TEAM PLAYER.

Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer

SAN ANTONIO - Tim Duncan is San Antonio's lone superstar, but Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Duncan has been patient with his young teammates and understands the need to get them involved.

``He's been unbelievable,'' Popovich said. ``It's been a year where he had to show a lot of empathy, a lot of patience. Because this is a guy who wants to get it done badly. He's perfectly willing to do it himself no matter what the odds.

``But he realized early in the season he had to have the help of his teammates, just like Kobe (Bryant) and Shaq (O'Neal). They couldn't do it by themselves in games 1 and 2. They needed their perimeter players to play. And those guys, the role players, played much better in Game 3.

``That's the way it is. Stars don't win championships by themselves, teams do. He understands that, so he's always going to be making that decision between, `Is this where I need to take over, or am I covered to the point where I need to trust other people?' Michael (Jordan) learned the same lessons.''

--Surprise: Most figured this would be a transitional year for the Spurs, with 20-year-old point guard Tony Parker and Stephen Jackson starting for the first time, and Speedy Claxton in only his second season.

The Spurs finished with a league-high 60 victories, but Popovich believes they might have shown their youth when the series shifted to Los Angeles.

``If you blink, you get burnt. And you don't get burnt like that in the regular season,'' Popovich said.

--Official view: The act of working the officials in the postseason is as old as the NBA, but Popovich has mostly left the officials alone in this series.

``Sometimes the media makes a big deal out of that, but I think it's all psycho-babble,'' he said. ``I mean, if the league and the referees and everybody was listening to that, there would have been a major change between Game 1 and Game 2. The (Phil Jackson) statements were made after Game 1 and nothing happened in Game 2.

--Just basking: Bryant took 12 free throws in the first two games in San Antonio and then 36 in the two in L.A.

Tuesday in Game 4, he had 12 field-goal attempts at the half and no free- throw attempts. Popovich said he didn't tell his team to play Bryant any differently.

``We told them there is a glow we have to respect,'' he said. ``The telling thing is, after the game if you check your hands and your chest and your body, if you've been in that glow too much, you will have a rash. And that tells you didn't play the kind of defense necessary.''