This NBA Finals rests squarely in Tim Duncan's hands.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Israel Gutierrez

MIAMI _ It's easy to say that how Tim Duncan plays will determine the winner of the upcoming NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and New Jersey Nets, which begin Wednesday.

It's also accurate.

Through three series, Duncan has seen every sort of defense that is legal in the league _ and that means everything _ and yet his play has lifted the Spurs through to their second Finals.

It hasn't necessarily been Duncan's scoring that has carried the Spurs, though he has increased his regular-season scoring average by 1.6 points in the postseason, but rather his decision-making.

``Tim's become really quite the master of understanding how he's being played, whether people are just allowing him to go one-on-one or whether it's the other extreme like when we played Phoenix, where before the ball even gets there he is already aggressively double-teamed,'' Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in a conference call Saturday.

``It was key for us because we go through him all the time. For him to trust and involve his teammates was really a big deal. I simply feel he is making great decisions between being aggressive himself and making sure he involves everyone else when it's appropriate.''