PHOENIX - There was heartbreak in the desert for the severely short-handed Phoenix Suns, and the San Antonio Spurs are one win away from the Western Conference finals.

Bruce Bowen, labeled a dirty player by the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and the subject of taunts all night from the Phoenix crowd, sank a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 36 seconds to play. That gave the Spurs their first lead since the game’s opening six minutes, and they pulled out an 88-85 victory on Wednesday night.

“It felt great,” Bowen said. “After all the things I was hearing from the sidelines it was great. The people were calling me choice names I had never heard before.”

San Antonio took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and can close it out by winning at home in Game 6 Friday night.

The Suns, without their all-NBA center Stoudemire and replacement Boris Diaw, and using essentially a six-man rotation, nearly won a grind-it-out kind of game the Suns aren’t supposed to be able to play.

“We left it on the floor,” Shawn Marion said. “What more can you ask of this team?”

Phoenix led by as many as 16 in the second quarter and was up 79-71 with 5:18 to play.

“You can’t relax for a second in this series because you’re done,” the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili said. “We are happy as if Amare would have played.”

Bowen’s trademark 3-pointer from the corner put San Antonio ahead 84-81.

“That’s Bruce,” the Spurs’ Tim Duncan said. “He’s made a billion of them.”

Ginobili, who had an awful start, scored 15 of his 26 points in the final quarter to rally the Spurs, sinking two free throws to put San Antonio ahead 86-83 with 10.5 seconds to go. Steve Nash badly missed a 3-pointer against Duncan’s defense, then Michael Finley made two free throws with 5.5 seconds left to seal the win.

Stoudemire and Diaw were suspended for the game by the NBA for leaving the bench area following Robert Horry’s flagrant foul on Nash with 18 seconds left in Game 4.

Horry got a two-game suspension. He also will miss Game 6.

But the Suns and their crowd were livid at what they felt was an unjust decision by commissioner David Stern and NBA executive vice president Stu Jackson.

They felt they got the worst of the ruling, even though a Spurs player instigated the incident. Signs in US Airways Center read “Burn Stern,” “Stern and Stu Are Dirty Too,” and “Free Amare.”

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The energy overwhelmed the Spurs — for a while.

“They were like hurt animals,” Ginobili said. “They were upset. They were playing with a lot of passion.”

Marion had 24 points and 17 rebounds, but scored only four points and took just five shots in the second half. Kurt Thomas, in a strong effort in place of Stoudemire, had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Nash finished with 19 points and 12 assists.

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Duncan had 21 points and 12 rebounds, but was shut down after Phoenix went to a double-team early in the third quarter. Finley had 13 points and Tony Parker 11.

“We were short-handed,” Nash said, “and you can look at it any way you want. I’ve definitely been self-critical the last 20 minutes or half-hour, but it was a lot to ask I guess when you look back. We needed more out of each of us and we just didn’t have it.”

For the Suns, Raja Bell played 47 minutes, Marion and Nash 46 apiece.

“We played about as hard as we can play,” Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni said.