Spurs wear down Suns, reach Western finals

updated 2:21 a.m. ET May 19, 2007

SAN ANTONIO - The San Antonio Spurs proved Friday night they can beat a complete Phoenix Suns team. Their reward is a berth in the Western Conference finals.

The Spurs held on to beat the Suns 114-106 and avoided a return to the desert for a Game 7.

San Antonio will instead host the Utah Jazz in Game 1 of the conference finals on Sunday. It’s the Spurs’ third trip to the conference finals in the last five years, and they won the title in 2003 and 2005.

Manu Ginobili had 33 points and a career-high 11 rebounds for the Spurs, who saw a 20-point lead cut to five late in Game 6. Tony Parker added 30 points for San Antonio, while Tim Duncan had 24 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high nine blocked shots.

“It was a hard fought, physical basketball game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We’re thrilled with the win. (Suns coach) Mike (D’Antoni) and his staff and the Suns players are unbelievably good basketball players. ... Frankly, I’m going to try to figure out how we did this.”

All-NBA first-team selection Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw of Phoenix were back Friday from their one-game suspensions for leaving the bench area at the end of Game 4 after Robert Horry’s flagrant foul on Steve Nash started a minor scuffle.

Stoudemire led the Suns with 38 points, 15 in the fourth quarter, and 12 rebounds.

Nash, who had 18 points and 14 assists, said the end to the season was difficult and that he didn’t know whether the Spurs’ series victory will be questioned because of the Game 5 suspensions. The Suns lost that game 88-85.

“We’ll never know. What can I say? Part of me wants to be a sportsman and give them credit. They beat us,” Nash said. “At the same time I can’t really answer that question because I don’t know what the outcome might have been.”

Special feature A look back at Spurs' win over Cavs

Horry missed the last of his two-game suspension for the foul that sent Nash tumbling into the scorer’s table and his forearm to Raja Bell in the subsequent scrum just before the Suns sealed a 104-98 victory in Game 4.

“I don’t know what to say,” Nash said. “It would be wasted words. It’s very difficult for us to finish the season like this.”

Steve Jones on the NBA Changes for the better? Have Suns' bold moves improved their chances to win NBA title?

The Spurs let a big lead dwindle in the fourth quarter Friday, just as they did in Game 4, but this time they didn’t give up the lead. Phoenix got as close as 106-101 with 34 seconds to play, but even Nash’s 15 fourth-quarter points couldn’t save the Suns.

“You have to understand we didn’t want to see it go one more” game, Duncan said. “Those guys are capable any night of putting a run together, exploding and running away with it.”

NBA Finals: Celtics vs. Lakers Boston wins series 4-2 Green Machine! Celtics roll to 17th title Curran: Big Three sacrifice to win Big One Ventre: Lakers must improve defense   Slide show: Images from the NBA Finals Vote: Will Celtics repeat?  |  MVP? Jones: Not so fast on a Celtics-Lakers rematch Participate! Share your thoughts  |  Send photos Look at each Celtics title  |  How they were built

San Antonio entered the fourth quarter leading 81-67 and Ginobili led the way over the final 12 minutes, hitting a 3-pointer with 10½ minutes to play to make it 86-70. His basket with just over 9 minutes left gave the Spurs a 92-72 lead.

“Manu took over for a while there, Bruce (Bowen) hit some 3s,” Duncan said. “We got a little bit of a lead and it snowballed.”

Nash, who had just three points going into the fourth, keyed the 20-7 run that got Phoenix back in the game.

Nash’s 3 with under a minute to play made it 105-99. Ginobili made one of two free throws and Shawn Marion’s dunk brought the Suns within 106-101. But Ginobili made two more free throws and Michael Finley hit a basket to put the Spurs up by nine with 17 seconds left.

Leandro Barbosa and Bell each had 13 points for Phoenix and Shawn Marion had 11 points and 11 rebounds.

“That kid’s the greatest,” Duncan said of Nash. “He’s unbelievable the way he makes his team run. Bruce did an unbelievable job chasing him the whole time. We respect him so much. We stayed on his hip.”