Whether it's watching the tranquil sunsets through rose-colored glasses in Maui or feeling the glare of another season as Mavericks coach, the future has never looked brighter for Don Nelson.

The island-bound coach said Friday that Dallas and Maui are his only options in terms of future employment. Coaching another NBA team has lost its appeal.

At the same time, owner Mark Cuban reiterated that the choice to coach next season will be Nelson's more than Cuban's. And Nelson plans to take his time, the way Cuban took his time during the season in weighing Nelson's future.

"I'm 63, and I don't want to move around if I don't have to, starting all over and all those kinds of things," Nelson said. "We love the Dallas area. My wife is comfortable. It's a comfort zone that is important to us. I'd rather not move around again. I don't think I would do that. I think the decision has to be made about me here."

As good as the Mavericks were this season, they are not a complete product. Not even close.

They know exactly what they need to give them the best chance to make the next step.

So are Maverick fans ready to embrace longtime nemesis Karl Malone? Or long-forgotten Alonzo Mourning?

Those big men will be two of the primary targets on the Mavericks' radar screen as they consider their options in the free-agent market, which figures to be their most viable way of beefing up.

"It's going to be a really interesting year for free agents," owner Mark Cuban said. "There are a lot more free agents than there are dollars and slots. And hopefully, that will create opportunities for us.

"Free agents are going to fall through the cracks. There are six teams with [salary] cap room. But there's more than 12 good free agents out there."

Good players are going to be scrambling for fewer dollars this off-season. And while marquee players such as Jermaine O'Neal won't be within the Mavericks' reach without giving up key players in a sign-and-trade scenario, players such as Malone and Mourning could be in their price range. The Mavericks will have their $4.5 million veteran salary-cap exception to use this summer.

Malone, who turns 40 on July 24, is weighing his options. He has spent his entire career in Utah. And he is on track to break the all-time NBA scoring record within the next two seasons.

Malone may be ready to break away from Utah. His wife already has made scouting trips to Dallas, San Antonio and Los Angeles. Malone is one of the most durable and toughest players in the league, never missing more than two games in any season.

Rest assured that the Mavericks are one of the only teams Malone is considering as a free-agent destination.

"They are definitely high on my list," Malone said Friday from his home in Utah. "And I don't have a very big list, either."

The Spurs were hung over from their loss two nights earlier and hungry. So early Wednesday night, Steve Kerr made reservations at a local Italian restaurant and invited the team. Several of the players said they would come, including Tony Parker.

But just moments before the group left, Parker called Kerr and told him he changed his mind. He wanted to stay in and order room service.

It just might have been the best decision he ever made.

Parker ordered the cr?me br?l?e, woke up vomiting and found himself on the bench Thursday night, out of energy and nursing a stomach virus.

With less than 11 minutes left, his team down 13 points and the Western Conference finals suddenly looking like it was going seven, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called on a guy who knows a few things about Game 6 heroics.

Steve Kerr?

Tony Parker missed Thursday morning's shootaround after becoming ill Wednesday night.

He still started Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Mavericks, though.

"He's going to play no matter what his endurance is," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. according to the Associated Press. "They put him on an IV all day to put some liquid in his body. Hopefully it'll be enough for him to maintain."

Parker began vomiting and suffering from other flulike symptoms Wednesday night, Popovich said. He stayed at the hotel Thursday morning while the rest of the team worked at American Airlines Center.

Making the exit into summer is never easy. But this way? This way was gruesome, not to mention humiliating. And starting today, that's what the Mavericks will have to live with, and live down, for more weeks and months than at the moment they care to even think about.

But on the other hand, how about that Steve Kerr, the 37-year-old savior of the Spurs here Thursday night, and the shocking architect of a San Antonio fourth-quarter comeback? Yes, this time it was a Spurs' comeback.

In a role reversal, the Mavs collapsed.

"The last thing we wanted was the lead," joked Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

In these Western Conference Finals, Pop had a point.

The Spurs blew away a 13-point deficit, Kerr took over the game on both ends of the floor, and Game 6 ended with San Antonio headed for the NBA Finals via a 90-78 victory.

Left dazed was a wild New Arena crowd that had experienced a massive emotional swing. What the heck happened?

Mavericks forward Walt Williams arrived at American Airlines Center on Thursday wearing a John Elway throwback jersey. Elway, the former Denver Broncos quarterback, set an NFL record with 47 career comebacks.

"Wow!" Williams said. "I didn't even know that. I just happened to grab that one."

The shirt almost fit the Mavericks again. But the NBA's Comeback Kids finally ran out of gas, out of luck and out of rallies. The Mavericks blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead.

The Mavs, who had overcome double-digit deficits in six playoff games, lost to the San Antonio Spurs 90-78 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. A capacity crowd of 20,812, some of whom had paid scalpers as much as $1,000 for a ticket, banged ThunderStix and yelled until the end of the series, won by the Spurs 4-2.

The San Antonio Spurs know a thing or three about fourth-quarter collapses. It has been the story line of their postseason, personified by an epic debacle in Game 5 when they blew a 19-point lead to an undermanned Dallas Mavericks team.

Must've been contagious. Because with a chance to extend the series to seven games Thursday, the Mavs broke down like an old car in the fourth quarter. In a Western Conference finals in which the home court was a disadvantage --- the home team won just one game --- the Spurs advanced to their first NBA Finals since 1999 by --- what else? ---defeating the Mavericks on the road 90-78.

Spurs guard Stephen Jackson scored a career-playoff-high 24 points and kept playing while most of his teammates sleepwalked through the first three quarters. His energy spread to reserve Steve Kerr, who came off the bench cold but quickly heated up during a stunning 23-0 fourth-quarter run.

Kerr, 37, was playing because Spurs point guard Tony Parker was fighting food poisoning and backup Speedy Claxton was mostly ineffective. Dallas built its lead to 55-42 in the third period after Claxton threw away passes on two of three possessions, then had his shot blocked on the next.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich then turned to his third-string point guard, Kerr, a 14-year veteran who won three championship rings with the Chicago Bulls and one with the Spurs in 1999. He sank three of his team's six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Spurs erased a 13-point deficit and outscored the Mavs 34-9 in the period.

Dirk Nowitzki and coach Don Nelson reiterated Wednesday that the Mavericks' all-star will not play in Game 6 on Thursday night unless he is 100 percent.

But defining 100 percent may be the difficult part of that equation.

Nowitzki will give his sprained left knee a test drive before Game 6. How he feels after lobbing a few shots and running the floor will determine whether or not he suits up against the Spurs.

"The decision is pretty much mine and Nellie's," Nowitzki said as he rested the knee for the fifth consecutive day. "The doctor pretty much cleared me as long as I can tolerate the pain. We'll talk before the game. It's pretty much 50-50 [that he'll play]. I'll try to get some shots up before the game. If it feels great, I'll play. If it doesn't, I won't."

Their 19-point lead was already long gone, their trip to the NBA Finals postponed for at least two days, when the Spurs mercifully ended Dallas' scoring binge Tuesday night by calling timeout.

Bruce Bowen, drenched in sweat and frustrated as ever, took a seat on the scorer's table, then listened to a fan mock the Spurs for their performance. Bowen turned and told him to shut up.

"Just play your game!" the fan yelled back.

"Shut up!"

Even after admitting to being "totally shocked" by San Antonio's collapse Tuesday night, Byron Scott isn't counting on the Western Conference finals going the full seven games.

That's right, the Nets coach wouldn't be surprised to see the Spurs rebound and close out the Mavs in Game6 in Dallas tonight.

"One thing about the Spurs is that when they do have lapses like that, and they lose a game like they did, they come back strong the next game," he said yesterday before practice. "They lost Game1 against Dallas the same way and then they won the next three. I think complacency set in being up 3-1. And then when they got a 19-point lead, they really thought it was over. But against Dallas, as David Robinson said, no lead is too big."