For the San Antonio Spurs, it's a new arena and an old problem.

On the plus side, they've left the cavernous Alamodome for the new 18,500-seat SBC Center. On the minus side, the Lakers still know where to find them if they meet up again in the playoffs.

For the second straight season, the Spurs enter a new season after crumbling in the playoffs against the defending champs. With last season's loss to L.A. in the second round, they've dropped eight of their last nine postseason games to the Lakers.

	Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers know all of Tim Duncan's MVP moves.

So what to do about Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, other than force them to come to an arena where they can actually hear the Baseline Bums taunt them?

"I would take the battery out of Shaq's car so he can't show up," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "And with Kobe, we'd probably do something similar. I just haven't thought of it yet."

What the Spurs have done is add more speed in the backcourt, revise their offense to get more motion on the perimeter and knock on wood that David Robinson's back holds up in his final NBA campaign. They'll be one of the league's better defensive teams, once again. But will it all translate into more success down the stretch of playoff games against L.A.?

"You have to be able to execute down the stretch," Popovich said. "They're definitely not unbeatable. It's a fine line often between winning and losing games like we did in the playoffs last year. A turnover here and there -- a made shot here and there -- totally changes a game. It's not like they're beating people by 20 in all of these games in the playoffs. But they do a great job of finishing games and finishing quarters, and your team has to be mature enough and execute well enough to play that game and to not make mistakes in those situations."

For the Spurs, of course, it all has to start with Tim Duncan, who's coming off his first MVP season. Against the Lakers last May, Duncan didn't raise his play in crunch time. He preferred passing to shooting, and several Lakers felt he was so predictable with his passes out of the post that they knew when and where to rotate. That's right: He was too fundamentally sound, if that's possible.

Popovich spent some of the preseason sending messages to his star power forward about being more assertive.

"I want him to be even more demonstrative," Popovich said. "I want him to be even hungrier. He doesn't always have to run the offense. Sometimes I'll tell him, 'Do you have the ball? Are you in the gym? Then shoot the damn thing.' "

If Duncan can't or doesn't, the Spurs have added quickness to their backcourt, with newly acquired Speedy Claxton and rookie shooting guard Manu Ginobli. Claxton, the former Sixer, is pushing playmaker Tony Parker, for the starting job. For once, they feel they have the kind of athletes who can get their own shots.

"From the perimeter, we want a little more emphasis on attack mode," Popovich said. "Rather than just moving the basketball, we want to attack on the dribble. Speedy will keep us at a certain pace during a game. We're not going to fall off at all, I don't think, no matter who's in the game. We're going to be able to run everything that we would like to run and it's very good for our team."

On Ginobli, an Argentine who turned heads at the World Championships last summer, Popovich said: "He's not just fast and quick or a jumper. He does have those things, but he's able to make that coincide with a real knowledge of what's going on out on the court in a team sense, to find teammates, to make players better on his basketball team, so his all-around game is very good in that regard."

	“	Every year that I've been here we've had a team with the capabilities to (win a championship). That's all that I want to be involved in. I don't want to be sitting around in any rebuilding time or any time when I don't feel like I have an opportunity to win it. That's what's going to make my decision for me. ”
		— Tim Duncan

Those two new additions should benefit from the Spurs adding some elements of a motion passing game. In the past, Steve Kerr, Steve Smith, Danny Ferry, Terry Porter and Mario Elie couldn't get their own shots, mainly because they were standstill shooters who depended on defenses collapsing with double teams around Duncan. But now the Spurs feel they will be able get to the basket with their perimeter players against Bryant and others.

"Two years ago we didn't run any of this stuff," said Kerr, returning to the Alamo City after playing in Portland last season. "It didn't seem to be a priority. This year, it seems like we're really focusing on it.

"I've always felt that we've got to make our other guys more dangerous somehow. When the Lakers started winning championships was when (Rick) Fox and (Robert) Horry and Derek Fisher started making shots. Part of that was running the triangle and getting shots out of the offense and getting a good rhythm for their team. Then when the big shots are there down the stretch, they're in a good rhythm in a good flow. That's one of the things we're trying to do now. Ultimately, the ball is going to go into Tim -- and it should -- but we still need to make shots around him down the stretch."

That includes Robinson, who hopes to go out with another ring. Already, there are doubters as to whether he can make it through the season.

"I can't really see anyone dethroning the Lakers in the West," New Orleans coach Paul Silas said. "We played against San Antonio and they feel they're right there with them. But David is on the last legs of his career. Nobody else can really fit that backup role he has (to Duncan). So I discount them."

But the Spurs seem to be the favorites in the all-important Duncan sweepstakes. He can opt to be a free agent at season's end, with Denver, Utah and the Clippers having enough money to make a run at him in July. But the Spurs can pay him more than anyone else -- $100 million over the next six seasons -- while also having enough cap space to lure Jason Kidd out of New Jersey. Duncan seems to like it where he is.

"I'm very happy with everything -- the new facilities, the players that we have," he said. "I honestly believe that every year that I've been here we've had a team with the capabilities to (win a championship). That's all that I want to be involved in. I don't want to be sitting around in any rebuilding time or any time when I don't feel like I have an opportunity to win it. That's what's going to make my decision for me."

Mitch Lawrence, who covers the NBA for the New York Daily News, writes a regular NBA column for ESPN.com.