Spurs leave Nash, Suns bruised, battered
Duncan, Parker combine for 65 points in 111-106 Game 1 victory
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PHOENIX - With blood spewing from a cut on his nose, Steve Nash could only watch from the bench while the San Antonio Spurs put away Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “It was obviously frustrating, but it was really out of my hands.”
Tim Duncan had 33 points and 16 rebounds — eight offensive — and Tony Parker added 32 points to lead the Spurs to a rugged 111-106 victory Sunday over Nash’s Phoenix Suns.
Nash scored 31 but missed a crucial 45 seconds in the final minute because of the bloody cut on his nose, the result of a head-on collision with Parker with 2:53 to play. The cut required six stitches after the game.
“You only see things like that in a boxing match,” the Spurs’ Robert Horry said, “where a guy cuts his nose and it won’t stop bleeding. You feel bad for the guy because you want to have the best team out there at the end of the game, and he wasn’t out there.”
Michael Finley added 19 points for San Antonio.
Amare Stoudemire had 20 points and 18 rebounds but was just 6-of-19 shooting. Leandro Barbosa scored 18 points for the Suns. Shawn Marion, after a slow start, scored 16, 11 in the final quarter.
The score was a bit high for Duncan’s liking.
“We’d rather play in the 90s, we’d rather play in the 80s,” he said. “That’s our type of game, but we’ve got a lot of guys who are shooting the ball really well. We’ve been moving the ball really well, and the points are going up on the board.”
Game 2 is Tuesday night in Phoenix.
After Parker stole Nash’s pass, the two collided head-to-head in the San Antonio backcourt. Parker fell to the floor. Nash initially thought Parker was the one who was hurt, and went to ask if he was all right, not knowing his nose was covered in blood.
“I thought I was the one who was bleeding,” Parker said.
Both stayed in the game.
Nash, with a bandage over the cut, made a 3-pointer to tie it at 102 with 2:25 to play, then Duncan gave the Spurs the lead for good with a 10-foot baseline hook shot. Nash missed a 3, then Parker sank a 23-footer to put San Antonio ahead 106-102 with 1:23 remaining.
Nash’s driving layup with 1:13 left cut it to 106-104, and Raja Bell drew an offensive foul on Parker to give Phoenix the ball. But Nash had to come out with 54 seconds to go because of blood oozing around the bandage.
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After a San Antonio timeout, Barbosa was called for a foul before the ball was thrown inbounds. That meant Finley got a free throw, and made it, and San Antonio kept possession.
The bleeding finally was contained and Nash returned with 9.1 seconds to go, but by then it was too late.
Asked if he thought the Suns would have won had he not been forced to sit, he said, “It’s impossible to say, but I think we would have had a shot. It was pretty bad timing, but you know that’s life.”
Nash was more concerned with what he perceives as a season-long tendency for the Suns to play less-than-inspired basketball over stretches.
“Very surprising, very frustrating,” he said. “How many times can you talk about it? We just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these invisible barriers that seem to pop up. I don’t know what they are, but sometimes we just don’t play as hard as we should.”
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