NET NOTES

SAN ANTONIO – After an ailing effort where he refused to point to his sickness as a reason for a bad Game 5, Kenyon Martin vowed not to have a second straight clunker in Game 6. It didn’t work.

“I feel like I let my team down,” said Martin, who had a terrible game, shooting 3-of-23 and scoring six points in the Nets’ 88-77 Game 6 loss to the Spurs that brought the title here. “I’ve always been there. I feel like I let them down and then we lost on top of it. I took the shots I was open. Shots I make every day. I just couldn’t knock them down tonight.”

In the middle of the Nets’ lockerroom after they had tasted bitter defeat for a second straight season, coach Byron Scott walked over and hugged Martin, whispering to his young forward.

“He just had one of those games where he couldn’t throw it in the ocean. It had nothing to do with him not being aggressive,” Scott said.

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Nets became the seventh team in seven tries to lose a Game 6 on the road when down 3-2.

Tim Duncan became the ninth player to be the regular-season and Finals MVP in the same season.

His triple double was the 27th in Finals history. The last came from Jason Kidd in Game 1 last year.

The Spurs blocked 59 shots in the Finals.

The Nets finished shooting .370 (182-492) in the Finals. The 182 field goals were a record low in a six-game series.

“There’s no doubt we could use another shooter, maybe to alleviate some of the pressure,” team president Rod Thorn said.