Learning The Basics
Bill Clinton was still in the White House when the Spurs swept the Trail Blazers in the Western Conference finals on the way to beginning a run that could stretch into the second decade of the new millennium. Faces change. There have been 116 teammates to take a turn alongside the only player to be a member -- the member -- of all four San Antonio championships. Tim Duncan doesn't change. With a second consecutive series sweep in the rear view mirror and his seventh trip to the conference finals just around the corner, Duncan never looks back or ahead.
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"It feels a lot like some of the championship teams," Duncan said before the Spurs began their preparations for Game 1 against Oklahoma City here in the Western Conference finals on Sunday night. "In saying that, we haven't done anything yet. We've won two rounds. That's it." The Spurs and Duncan are too well-traveled, too well-schooled and too well-scarred to get too excited at the halfway mark. They can remember being swept out of the playoffs one step short of The Finals in 2001 and dusted against at the threshold by the Lakers in 2008. This is their first time back in four years. It comes at a time when some began to wonder if it would happen again.