EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? Steve Kerr sat along the baseline Thursday, confessed to his occasional bouts with boredom during the NBA Finals and reminisced about the last time a championship series was tied 2-all.

It was 1997, the first time the Bulls played the Utah Jazz in the finals, and Chicago had lost two in a row after winning Games 1 and 2 at home.

Ah, the Michael Jordan years. Back when scoring 90 points seemed possible.

The current NBA Finals bear almost no resemblance.

“We have definitely set back offensive basketball about 15 years, both teams,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Thursday.

Offensive basketball is sort of a double entendre in a series featuring steadily declining final scores and minuscule shooting percentages.

The Nets and Spurs have shown that they match up a little too well with each other, each team capable of neutralizing the other’s strengths.

It certainly hasn’t been as entertaining as what the Bulls did in the 1990s or what the Lakers did the past three years, but at least it’s a whole new series now. Game 5 is today at the Meadowlands, and history will be on the side of the winner.

San Antonio's Emanuel Ginobili talks to media before practice. The Spurs worked out Thursday in East Rutherford, N.J.

Of the 22 previous times the finals have been tied 2-all, the winner of Game 5 has gone on to take the title 16 times — a 73 percent success rate.

The point totals have dropped in each game, from 190 to 172 to 163 to 153, with Games 3 and 4 ranking among the seven lowest-scoring finals games in league history.

The Nets were often a pleasure to watch during the regular season when they played teams unable or unwilling to contest their fast breaks and backdoor dunks. But the Spurs have taken away those options, leaving the Nets to run a halfcourt offense with a roster devoid of any solid outside shooters.

Duncan, with his deft footwork, smart decision-making and use of the backboard, is a joy to behold for the fundamental purist. To everyone else, he can come off as boring.

With the Nets finding ways to defend Duncan while daring the other Spurs to beat them from outside, the basketball-viewing public has been fed a steady diet of missed jump shots and turnovers.

“I’ve been a little bored over on the sidelines there myself at times in games. It’s a shame. But it’s the way the matchups happen,” Kerr said.