Spurs, Cavs advance
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 at San Antonio.
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. 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. 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 33 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 more than 9 minutes left gave the Spurs a 92-72 lead.
Nash finished with 18 points and 14 assists, while Leandro Barbosa and Raja Bell each had 13 points.
Cavaliers 88, Nets 72: At East Rutherford, N.J., LeBron James returned from a long stint on the bench to score 23 points, and Cleveland advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 15 years by beating New Jersey.
Cleveland won the series 4-2 and heads to Detroit on Monday night for its third appearance in a conference finals and the first since 1992. James, who had eight rebounds and eight assists, needed only four years to get the Cavs into the NBA’s final four.
He got plenty of help in the clincher from reserves Donyell Marshall and Daniel Gibson, and the Cavs needed it because James spent most of the third quarter on the bench in foul trouble and Cleveland managed just eight points. New Jersey cut what had been a 22-point deficit to one, but with James back for the fourth quarter, the Nets never could take the lead.
Marshall scored 18 points and Gibson had eight. They had combined for 26 points total in the first five games.
Jason Kidd had 19 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Nets, who stayed alive with a victory at Cleveland in Game 5 and were hoping to become the ninth NBA team to come back from 3-1 deficit to win a series.
Notes
NBA coach of the year Sam Mitchell agreed to a new contract with the Toronto Raptors, the Canadian Press reported. … Heat guard Dwyane Wade is recovering from surgery this week on his left shoulder and knee, operations he opted to have the same day to speed up his return to the court. … LeBron James said his pregnant girlfriend was fine, two days after she was taken to the hospital during Game 5.