SEATTLE -- To a man, the Spurs -- even with the absence of Tim Duncan -- said they were prepared.

	Duncan

They claimed they would give it their best shot, they were confident they could end the first-round series against the Sonics in Seattle. Their travel itinerary after the game included two sets of plans, one of which included a flight Thursday morning to Los Angeles, in preparation for the Western Conference semifinals against the Lakers.

Instead, the Spurs on Thursday morning return to San Antonio, hopeful that Tim Duncan can return and salvage their season after a 91-79 loss to the Sonics on Wednesday that left their best-of-five series even at two games apiece.

Duncan was with his family, mourning the death of his father, William, who passed away on Monday. David Robinson was back at home in San Antonio, nursing his sore back. In their absence, the Spurs were completely out of sorts, scoring just 13 points in the first quarter, trailing by as many as 28 points in the game and going a stretch of over six minutes in the second quarter during which they failed to score a basket out of the halfcourt offense.

"We ran the same plays we always run, we had good shots," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They just didn't go in for us."

And just how did the loss of Duncan impact the Spurs?

Tony Parker, playing against a defense that didn't have to sag in the middle, finally looked like the rookie from France that he is, hitting just six of 18 shots in scoring 14 points after scoring 23 points on Sunday. Bruce Bowen, who on defense can get up in players' faces on the perimeter knowing TD's got his back, wasn't as effective.

The lone bright spot for the Spurs was the play of Malik Rose, the undersized 6-foot-7 forward who usually gets easy scores with all the attention paid to Duncan. Rose played like a warrior in scoring a career-high 28 points (8-of-16 from the field, 12-of-13 from the line) to go along with 13 rebounds.

Rose was a force, but he had to work hard for every shot.

"We're disappointed we didn't win," Rose said. "We really expected to come out here and get this game."

Minus Duncan, the Sonics did everything right.

Gary Payton came through with his best statistical performance of the series with a triple-double -- 28 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists. And Vladimir Radmanovic, a 6-10 rookie forward from Yugoslavia, had 23 points -- 19 of those coming in the first half, when he hit all seven of his shots, including five 3-pointers. Radmanovic, making his first start of the series, had scored only eight points in the three games going into Game 4 and had a career scoring high of 21 points.

"He was huge for us," Sonics coach Nate McMillan said. "Every shot he hit was a big shot. He had a great game."

The Spurs without Duncan? Imagine a child being born with an overabundance of wealth, living his entire life in a palatial estate and then, without warning, being stripped of all of his riches and being left to fend for himself.

You just can't suddenly remove a superstar like Duncan from a squad and ask a team to perform at the same level. The days that Steve Smith and Terry Porter could carry a team are long gone.

So instead of getting prepared for the Lakers -- which they had anticipated prior to the death of Duncan's father -- the Spurs find themselves getting prepared for a deciding Game 5.

While the Spurs are led to believe that Duncan will play in Friday's game at the Alamodome, the concern is what kind of an emotional state their All-Star will be in for a game coming so soon after the death of his father.

"Really, every individual handles if differently and I really can't say," Popovich said. "But Tim is a mature young man. He'll probably be able to get back to the task at hand very quickly."

Tim Duncan's ability to get back to the task at hand is exactly what the Spurs need right now. San Antonio's season will depend on it.

Jerry Bembry is the NBA general editor for ESPN The Magazine.