PHOENIX – With blood spewing from a cut on his nose, Steve Nash could only watch from the bench while the Spurs put away Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “It was obviously frustrating, but it was really out of my hands.”
Tim Duncan had 33 points and 16 rebounds – eight offensive – and Tony Parker added 32 points to lead the Spurs to a rugged 111-106 victory yesterday over Nash’s Suns.
Nash scored 31 but missed a crucial 45 seconds in the final minute because of the bloody cut on his nose, the result of a head-on collision with Parker with 2:53 to play. The cut required six stitches after the game.
“You only see things like that in a boxing match,” the Spurs’ Robert Horry said, “where a guy cuts his nose and it won’t stop bleeding. You feel bad for the guy because you want to have the best team out there at the end of the game, and he wasn’t out there.”
GAME 1 Spurs 111 Suns 106