Spurs close out the Suns

SAN ANTONIO — Instead of a trip back to Phoenix for a Game 7, the San Antonio Spurs closed out their contentious series with the Suns with a 114-106 victory in Game 6 on Friday night.

San Antonio will host the Utah Jazz on Sunday in the opening game of the Western Conference finals. It's the Spurs' third trip to the conference finals in the last five years and they won the title the other two times.

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

The Suns had All-NBA first-team selection Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw back from their one-game suspensions for leaving the bench area at the end of Game 4. Stoudemire led the Suns with 38 points, 15 in the fourth quarter, and 12 rebounds.

San Antonio's Robert Horry missed the second of his two-game suspension for the hit on Steve Nash that started the incident.

The Spurs let a big lead dwindle in the fourth quarter, just as they did in Game 4, but this time they didn't give up the lead or the game. 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.

San Antonio entered the fourth leading 81-67 and Ginobili led the way over the final 12 minutes, hitting a 3-pointer with 10 1/2 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.

Nash finished with 18 points and 14 assists, while Leandro Barbosa and Raja Bell each had 13 points.

"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."

Now it's the Jazz on Sunday afternoon.