Vin Baker expects to be back in Seattle for another season.  The Sonics tried to trade Baker last summer, but weren't able to pull the trigger.

Baker says this year is different from last year.  Nunyo Demasio of the Seattle Times says the change started last summer, when owner Howard Shulz took Baker under his wing.

After their rough start, Schultz and Baker developed a close relationship last summer. The owner realized that Baker was a sensitive player who reacted better to encouragement than criticism. For much of the season this approach worked.

So Baker wants and expects to be back in Seattle.  He says, "I loved being there this season. I think we had a great season."

Coach Nate McMillan recognizes Baker's value a low-post presence in the playoffs.  And Baker feels with a healthy Calvin Booth and Jerome James, he'll be a better rebounder.

Demasio says it's same old same old: Baker saying he'll get better next year, while the Sonics pay him a ridiculous amount that makes it nearly impossible for them to trade Baker.  But efforts to trade Baker this summer will be lower key.

What are the Seattle Supersonics to do?  It seems like this story keeps surfacing around this time annually; the Seattle Supersonics are trying to find a team willing to take on Vin Baker.  How long before the Knicks rumors start up again?

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times states that Vin Baker is not a team player and has to go.  The Sonics are a better team without him and he is taking valuable minutes from the younger players like Calvin Booth, Jerome James, Vlade Radmanovic and Peja Drobjak.  His work ethic is non-existant and the only kind words coach Nate McMillan can find about him is "Vin has a lot of potential."

Potential is for 19 or 20 year old boys, not for a 30 year old ex-All Star who cannot control his weight.  Last year the Sonics made a mistake by announcing that he was being shopped, where this year they are taking a lower key approach with hopes of better results.

"Vin is my player," McMillan said. "He is on my roster and I am preparing for him to be here. I have to find ways to try and get him to give us what we need, what I think he's capable of giving us."

Where else could he go?  Kelley suggests not to hold on for a blockbuster because the best that will happen would be Utah?s Greg Ostertag and others for Baker or perhaps Charlotte/New Orleans might sign Lee Nailon and package him with Elden Campbell for Baker.

Even those, especially the Hornets scenario, sound unlikely.

In the end, Seattle didn't stand a chance. Exactly as Duncan predicted 16 days earlier.

Fueled by the emotion of Duncan's return ? his 23 points, nine rebounds and playoff career-high seven blocks didn't hurt, either ? the Spurs rolled over the Sonics 101-78 to close out the five-game series and lift themselves into their much-awaited meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers.

"Leaving my family and getting here was the hardest part," said Duncan, who flew in from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Thursday night. "But being here with these guys and getting back on the court and playing basketball was the easy part.

"I wanted to be out on the court. It was kind of like a sanctuary. You get out there and play the game and nothing really matters but what's happening on the court."

ANTONIO -- The dime-store analysts were out with enough opinions to fill every vacant shelf in the Institute of Pop Psychology.

They would look into his face, stare into his eyes, pretend to rummage into his very private soul and understand what was happening there in the deepest corners.

Tim Duncan returned to the Spurs, four days after abruptly leaving practice in Seattle upon learning of the death of his father, and so much of the talk was of rebirth, of the emotional lift he would give to his team and to the throng of 23,369 in the deciding game of this first-round playoff series.

Would he be a symbolic warrior, a modern-day version of the wounded Willis Reed hobbling onto the court in 1970 to an ovation that sounded like the area around the launch pad at Cape Canaveral when the space shuttle lifts off?

Would he be a driven, inspired, spiritually-motivated Joe Dumars in the 1990 NBA Finals, playing the game of his life on the very day that his own father's had ended?

He would be Tim Duncan.

This series was over by the first timeout, San Antonio up 11-2 with Tim Duncan scoring the opening eight points for the Spurs after missing Game 4 due to the death of his father.

"I really felt like we'd be in the game tonight," said a crestfallen McMillan. "I felt it wouldn't be so lopsided. It really wasn't a game.

"I told the team we didn't give our best effort, and that was disappointing. In a Game 5 you feel you can beat a team you're going against. When you get to a Game 5 and you don't end with your best effort, we'll think about it all summer."

When Malik Rose, all 6-6 of him, can out-rebound Vin Baker, 6-10, nine to zero in the opening quarter it is going to be one of those nights, and it certainly was for the Sonics.

"We put ourselves in position to play a Game 5," McMillan said, "but the negative is we didn't end with our best effort."

"I'd love to see Tim out there on the floor," James said. "I'd hate to get a victory off another team's excuses."

Such is the confidence level of James and the rest of the Sonics after Seattle was able to even its first-round playoff series with a 91-79 victory at KeyArena on Wednesday.

With Duncan and David Robinson both out of the Spurs' lineup, the Sonics built a 28-point lead in the first half and coasted the rest of the way to stave off elimination.

But even though Seattle won Game 4 against a roster that wasn't exactly at full strength, players said that knowledge didn't temper the enthusiasm they gained by pulling within one game of the Western Conference semifinals.

ESPN is reporting that both Tim Duncan and David Robinson will be available tonight in the do-or-die Game 5 against the Sonics in San Antonio.  Tim Duncan returned to the team late Thursday after the funeral for his father.

ESPN also reports that Robinson is recovered enough from his back injury to play, though articles by Johnny Ludden in today's San Antonio Express News make no mention of his recovery.  Ludden writes that Robinson wouldn't be available tonight or Sunday against the Lakers (if the Spurs were to advance).

On a night when the Spurs knew only a flawless performance would let them close out their first-round playoff series against Seattle, their execution failed to match their effort. With Duncan in the U.S. Virgin Islands following the death of his father, the Sonics took advantage of his absence to beat the Spurs 91-79 and set up a fifth and deciding game Friday night at the Alamodome.

Though Duncan has yet to confirm when he will return, he is making an effort to get back in time to play Friday, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Robinson, still troubled by his ailing back, remains doubtful.

"At this point, (Duncan) is doing his best to get here for the game," Popovich said. "But he'll take care of what he has to take care of with his family first. That's the most important thing."

There was no Tim Duncan and there was no David Robinson, which probably explains why the Seattle Supersonics were able to dominate the Spurs to earn a Game 5 berth and a chance to advance to the second round of the finals.

Sonics rookie Vladimir Radmanovic was sizzling in this game, hitting his first seven shots ? including five three pointers ? on his way to 19 first half points (23 in the game), but the true hero for Seattle was Gary Payton.  Payton recorded a triple double, finishing with 28 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, responding positively to the criticism that he had been receiving about not outplaying Spurs rookie Tony Parker.

The game was a heated battle with the teams going at it twice with Brent Barry and Bruce Bowen mixing it up followed by Desmond Mason and Mark Bryant getting tangled.  Bryant went close to throwing a punch, according to Jim Moore of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and although nothing landed if the league rules this way he will miss Game 5 through an automatic suspension..

"We got tangled up a little bit," Mason said. "I tried to get up and he held me down. He reacted, I reacted. It's two competitive guys trying to win. I got bumped, grabbed and held by guys all over the floor. They were trying to intimidate us. It didn't work."

"There were some dirty tactics to try and rile us up," Vin Baker said. "It was rough. Their tactics are going to look like a Swedish massage compared to what's going to happen in Game 5."

For the first time in six years, the Spurs will have to compete in a playoff game with neither Tim Duncan nor David Robinson when they face Seattle tonight in KeyArena for Game 4, writes Johnny Ludden of the San Antonio Express News.

David Robinson received another injection in his back to reduce the pain caused by a degenerative disc.  He is sure to miss tonight?s game and, some fear, may miss the 2002 playoffs altogether.  Tim Duncan flew home to the Virgin Islands after receiving word of his father?s death.  If the Sonics win tonight, forcing a Game 5 on Friday, Duncan will return to San Antonio to play, though there is no telling if he?ll be able to keep his mind on the game.  Danny Ferry, who would usually fill in for the two, is doubtful due to a sprained wrist with poor range of motion.

Duncan and Robinson will be replaced in the starting lineup by Malik Rose and either Cherokee Parks or Mark Bryant.  However, the loss of Duncan is an especially hard blow because the offense is designed around him.  The playoffs are no time to work on new offensive strategies, but the Spurs will have to make significant adjustments to find some baskets.