NBA

Spurs leave Nash, Suns bruised, battered

Duncan, Parker combine for 65 points in 111-106 Game 1 victory

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Steve Nash gets nasty gash
May 7: Suns guard Steve Nash endures a head-on collision with Spurs guard Tony Parker in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals. Nash was forced to leave the court with a bloody nose. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown reports.

The Spurs dominated the boards 49-35.

“It was really an emphasis for us because they are so athletic and they score so much,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said. “We really couldn’t afford to give them second-chance points. We did a better job of that than we usually do.”

Neither team led by more than eight points in the intense contest between the teams with the two best records left in the playoffs.

Marion broke out of a subpar offensive game to score seven in the 82 seconds of the fourth quarter. His 3-pointer, followed by a fast-break layup, put Phoenix ahead 84-83 with 9:38 remaining.

There were seven lead changes and three ties after that.

Parker, who loves to play against the fast Suns and averaged 28 points against them in the regular season, was one shy of his career playoff high.

When the teams returned to the court at halftime, Suns coach Mike D’Antoni got into a heated conversation with referee Bob Delaney at midcourt. During the talk, Delaney turned called a technical against Suns assistant Mark Iavaroni, who was sitting on the Phoenix bench.

Finley’s free throw on the technical ignited a 16-5 Spurs’ run to start the second half. Parker scored six in the surge, capped by a 19-footer that put San Antonio ahead 67-59 with 8:05 left in the third.

After the game, D’Antoni was still grumbling about two calls — the inbounds foul on Barbosa and one on Stoudemire late in the second quarter.

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“There were some calls that just changed the complexion of the game,” he said. “Now right, wrong, I’m not here to judge that, and I’m sure they had all the best intentions in the world. It’s just we didn’t get that break and they changed the complexion of the game.”

But he said the Spurs deserve credit for pulling it out.

“These guys are good,” D’Antoni said. “It’s almost like a heavyweight champion, you’ve got to knock them out. We didn’t do it.”

Notes: San Antonio has won five straight playoff games. ... Marion turns 29 on Monday. ... It’s the second time since 1975 that the league’s highest-scoring team (Suns 110.2 points) is going against the top defensive team (Spurs 90.1) in the playoffs. The other occasion was the 2005 Western Conference finals between Phoenix and San Antonio, which the Spurs won.

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