LOS ANGELES, May 23 (AFP) - The San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers swept into the National Basketball Association conference finals Sunday, wrapping up their semi-final victories in four games apiece. Tim Duncan and the Spurs gave Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers a harsh lesson in heart and determination. Duncan had 33 points and 14 rebounds as the Spurs completed a rousing four-game sweep of their Western Conference semi-final with a 118-107 victory. In Philadelphia, the Pacers once again showed their experience while the Philadelphia 76ers showed their age. The Pacers did not panic during an awful fourth quarter and made all the key plays down the stretch in an 89-86 victory over the 76ers that completed a four-game sweep of their Eastern Conference semi-final. Reggie Miller scored 23 points, including a running banker that gave the Pacers the lead for good with 1:31 to play. After missing 13 straight shots deep into the final period, Indiana turned the tables and held Philadelphia without a basket for the last 3:17. "Our defense stepped up for us big-time," Miller said. "We made plays down the stretch defensively. We were struggling offensively in the fourth." It was a familiar formula for the Pacers, who in all four games built big early leads, weathered comebacks by the pesky 76ers and relied on their huge advantage in postseason experience to put away the wins. "It felt long, like a six- or seven-game series," Miller said. "You really got to give Philadelphia a lot of credit. We knew they weren't going to lie down." The first best-of-seven series sweep in NBA franchise history made Indiana the first team since the 1993 Chicago Bulls to go undefeated through the first two rounds. The Pacers returned to the conference finals for the fourth time in six years and await the winner of the series between Atlanta and New York. The Knicks took a commanding 3-0 lead over Atlanta with a 90-78 victory in New York on Sunday. Chris Dudley covered for an ineffective Patrick Ewing by scoring 10 of his 14 points in the fourth period and the Knicks used another strong effort by their bench to push the Hawks to the brink of elimination. A defensive specialist who scored only eight points in the first seven playoff contests, Dudley had his best game of the season. His fourth-quarter total matched his best game in two years with New York, with half those points coming in a decisive 10-0 spurt. Dudley also was part of another strong defensive performance. After allowing Steve Smith to score 17 points in the first half, the Knicks held him scoreless in the second half. Atlanta had only 11 points in the third quarter and was stuck in the 70s for the second straight game. Allan Houston and Latrell Sprewell scored 17 points apiece for the eighth-seeded Knicks, who hold a 3-0 series lead and can advance to the conference finals for the first time since 1994 with another win at home on Monday. Across the continent in Los Angeles, however, the other club pegged by the NBA as a marquee franchise in the post Michael Jordan era saw its season end. San Antonio's Duncan continued to stake his claim as the NBA's best player. With a desire to close out the series against the lakers, he shot 11-of-14 from both the field and the line and continued to make his teammates better, despite little help from foul-plagued fellow "Twin Tower" David Robinson. "They had a couple of runs where they tried to get back into the game and cut it from 12 or 13 back to four or five," Duncan said. "We kept our composure and pushed it back at them and had a big run in the fourth quarter and really put it away." The Spurs shot 60 percent (36-of-60) from the field and made 39-of-54 free throws as they never trailed and posted the highest total of the 1999 playoffs. O'Neal had 36 points and 14 rebounds. He shot 12-of-23 from the field and the line. Nevertheless, he was swept out of the playoffs for the fifth time in six years. "It's very embarrassing," O'Neal said. "Every time I get sent home, I get embarrassed. I hate saying, Well, we played hard.'" The confident Spurs now wait for the winner of the series between Portland and Utah, in which the Trail Blazers took a 3-1 lead on Sunday with an 81-75 victory. The two-time defending conference champion Jazz have the experience when it comes to winning crucial playoff games. But on Sunday Portland looked like the postseason veterans down the stretch. Isaiah Rider scored seven of his 24 points in the final 30 seconds as the Trail Blazers pushed the two-time defending Western Conference champions to the brink of elimination with an 81-75 victory. Portland can clinch its first trip to the conference finals since 1992 when it visits the Delta Center on Tuesday. The Jazz had a golden opportunity to even this series on the road, but failed to take advantage of a questionable call and committed a pair of turnovers in the final minute. bb99  