SAN ANTONIO ? All this tough talk tumbling out of their mouths, all those wasteful words on how they weren’t happy to be here this time, how they expect to compete for a championship and then this happens Wednesday. What a disaster. What a futile exercise. From one year to the next, nothing has changed in these NBA Finals: The Nets don’t belong on the floor with the Western Conference and a superstar center.

When they needed to step up and punch these Spurs in the mouths, they cowered and crawled back into a hole. As the Spurs’ towers were playing above the rim, the Nets were running for cover down below. The Nets just folded up in this 101-89 loss, playing the part of the Eastern Conference patsy. Welcome to the NBA Finals. Don’t dare blink. It’ll be over in a flash.

The Nets want the world to take them seriously? Once again, the truth comes bubbling to the surface: Size matters. Tim Duncan was devastating: 32 points, 20 rebounds, and seven blocks. When he started hitting those long jumpers, forget it. It’s over. Old man David Robinson was marvelous with 14 points, six rebounds, and four blocks too. Size matters.

When Kenyon Martin was pressed in the postgame news conference on how he had been so relieved to sidestep Shaq in these Finals, just to run into Duncan, he had little interest in answering the question.

He turned to the moderator and said, “Can I leave now?” Three more games, Kenyon. At this rate, three more games and you can leave for the summer. For now, the Nets still need to prove they are worthy of competing with the Western Conference. The Spurs dangled every chance for these Nets to stay in this game with it tied, 42-42, even steal it, and the Nets completely self-destructed.

“We became passive and it was downhill from there,” Jason Kidd said.

This time, it comes back to the Nets’ franchise star. It comes to Jason Kidd. Sorry, but this can’t happen. They need him to be spectacular in this series, but Kidd missed 13 of 17 shots and that’ll get the Nets blown out every time. He doesn’t just need to make shots, but control the game. Suddenly, he couldn’t get to the basket on Tony Parker. On the rare times Kidd did, those towering Spurs were waiting to stop him. Size matters.

Tim Duncan, left, moves around New Jersey's Aaron Williams. Duncan had 32 points, 20 rebounds and seven blocks in the Spurs' 101-89 victory Wednesday in San Antonio.

Kidd missed on air balls, on shots barely grazing the rim, on shots he has to make in these Finals. And when Kidd is getting most of his shots on jumpers, isn’t getting to the basket, this happens. The Spurs hustled back on defense. They stopped the Nets’ break. They made them turn the ball over. They had a fantastic plan to slow the Nets.

So, the Eastern Conference mirage had peeled back, the mirage of 10 straight victories dissolving into a clear picture of the truth: As suspected, the East is a joke. It is small and weak, exposed on the Finals stage.