European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - May 8, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                May 2007 stars and stripes Mideast edition Page 31 Loody unday spewing Gash benches Nash during crucial Span of suns series opening loss to spurs by Bob Baum the associated press Phoenix with blood spew ing from a Cut on his Steve Nash could Only watch from the Bench while the san Antonio spurs put away game 1 of the Western conference there was nothing i could he it was obviously but it was really out of my Tim Duncan had 33 Points and 16 rebounds eight offensive and Tony Parker added 32 Points to Lead the spurs to a rugged 111106 Victory sunday Over Nash Phoenix Nash scored 31 but missed a crucial 45 seconds in the final minute because of the bloody Cut on his the result of a Headon collision with Parker with to the Cut required six stitches after the you Only see things like that in a boxing the spurs Rob Ert Horry where a Guy cuts his nose and it wont Stop bleed you feel bad for the Guy be cause you want to have the Best team out there at the end of the and he want out Michael Finley added 19 Points for san Amare Stoudemire had 20 Points and 18 rebounds but was just 6for19 Leandro Barbosa scored 18 Points for the Shawn after a slow scored 11 in the final the score was a bit High for duncans wed rather play in the wed rather play in the he that our Type of but weve got a lot of Guys who Are shooting the Ball really weve been moving the Ball really and the Points Are going up on the game 2 is tuesday night in after Parker stole Nash the two collided head Ohead in the san Antonio Parker fell to the Nash initially thought Parker was the one who was and went to ask if he was All not knowing his nose was covered in i thought i was the one who was Parker both stayed in the with a Bandage Over the made a three Pointer to tie it at 102 with to then Dun can gave the spurs the Lead for Good with a 10foot Baseline Hook Nash missed a then Parker Sank a 23footer to put san Antonio ahead 106102 with Nash driving Layup with left Cut it to and Raja Bell Drew an offensive foul on Parker to give Phoenix the but Nash had to come out with 54 seconds to go because of blood oozing around the after Nash bar Bosa missed a three Pointer that would have Given Phoenix the Manu Ginobile made one of two free throws to make it 107104 with 32 seconds to then Stoudemire two free throws sliced the Lead to 107106 with 26 seconds to Phoenix suns guard Steve Nash has his nose attended to by a Trainer after running into san Antonio spurs Tony Parker during the fourth Quarter on Nash missed a key 45 seconds of the last after a san Antonio Barbosa was called for a foul be fore the Ball was thrown in that meant Finley got a free and made and san Antonio kept the bleeding finally was contained and Nash returned with seconds to but by then it was too asked if he thought the suns would have won had he not been forced to he its impossible to but i think we would have had a it was pretty bad but you know that Nash was More concerned with what he perceives As a sea so Long tendency for the suns to play Lessith uninspired basketball Over very very frustrate he How Many times can you talk about it we just have to have a bigger heart and continue to push through these in visible barriers that seem to pop i dont know what they but sometimes we just dont play As hard As we the spurs dominated the boards it was really an emphasis for us because they Are so athletic and they score so san an Tonio coach Gregg Popovich we really  afford to give them second Hance we did a better Job of that than we usually neither team led by More than eight Points in the intense contest Between the teams with the two Best records left in the Marion broke out of a subpar offensive game to score seven in the first 82 seconds of the fourth Quad his followed by a fast break put Phoenix ahead 8483 with there were seven Lead changes and three ties after even a Stuffy Lebron too much for nets by Tom Withers the associated press Cleveland Lebron James Stuffy nose was nothing compared to the congestion new Jersey dealt with their superstar slowed by a Nasty head the Cleveland Cavaliers turned up their de sense to beat the nets 8177 on sunday in game 1 of their Eastern conference semifinal the Cavaliers clogged passing pushed bodies around under the Basket and generally made life miserable for the play of tested who rarely got off a shot with out a hand waving in their our defense was the thing that carried coach Mike Brown said who came Down with a cold while the cars waited around for a second round of sniffled his Way to 21 Points and Larry Hughes added 17 As Cleveland remained unbeaten so far this the cars came in Well rested after their fou game sweep of Washington in the first and they needed every ounce of Energy to hold off the who pulled within 7977 on Vince Carters two free throws with seconds James scored on a Tough drive to put Cleve land up by on new jerseys final the Cavaliers made a defensive stand that must have Given Brown chills from head to As the nets quickly worked the Ball on the perimeter looking for a they encountered a Cavalier at every up nothing Down it didst and when new jerseys Bostian Nachbar finally found enough room to get off a shot with seconds James blocked we understand that if we get were a Tough team to Hughes it was the Type of Tea Orient de defense Brown Learned As an assistant under san Antonio coach Gregg Popovich and the kind he has repeatedly preached to his team that it must play in order to win an Aba we closed the game like we cars guard Sasha Pavlovic we played de sense As a Cleveland held new Jersey to 37 percent shooting and forced Carter into taking awk of balance the cars also dominated out rebounding the smaller nets 5137 and getting 20 offensive Aba scoreboard first round Best of 7 Eastern conference Detroit Orlando 0 Detroit Orlando 92 Detroit Orlando 90 Detroit Orlando 77 Detroit Orlando 93 Cleveland Washington 0 Cleveland Washington 82 Cleveland Washington 102 Cleveland Washington 92 Cleveland Washington 90 new Jersey Toronto 2 new Jersey Toronto 91 Toronto new Jersey 83 new Jersey Toronto 89 new Jersey Toronto 81 Toronto new Jersey new Jersey Toronto 97 Chicago Miami 0 Chicago Miami 91 Chicago a Jam 89 Chicago Miami 96 Chicago Miami 79 Western conference Golden state Dallas 2 Golden state dal Las 85 Dallas Golden state 99 Golden state Dallas 91 Golden state Dallas 99 Dallas Golden state 112 Golden state Dallas 86 Phoenix lakers 1 Phoenix lakers 87 Phoenix lakers 98 lakers Phoenix 89 Phoenix lakers 100 Phoenix lakers 110 san Antonio Denver 1 Denver san Antonio 89 san Antonio Denver 88 san Antonio Denver 91 san Antonio Denver 89 san Antonio Denver 78 Utah Houston 3 Houston Utah 75 Houston Utah 90 Utah Houston 67 Utah Houston 85 Houston Utah 92 Utah Houston 82 Utah Houston 99 quarterfinals Best of 7 Eastern conference Detroit Chicago Detroit Chicago Detroit leads series 10 monday Chicago at Detroit thursday Detroit at Chicago May 13 Detroit at Chicago May 15 Chicago at May 17 Detroit at May 21 Chicago at Cleveland new Jersey sunday Cleveland new Jersey Cleveland leads series 10 tuesday new Jersey at Cleveland saturday Cleveland at new Jersey May 14 Cleveland at new Jersey May 16 new Jersey at May 18 Cleveland at new May 20 new Jersey at Western conference Phoenix san Antonio sunday san Antonio Phoenix san Antonio leads series 10 tuesday san Antonio at Phoenix saturday Phoenix at san Antonio May 14 Phoenix at san Antonio May 16 san Antonio at May 18 Phoenix at san May 20 san Antonio at Utah Golden state monday Golden state at Utah wednesday Golden state at Utah Friday Utah at Golden state May 13 Utah at Golden May 15 Golden state at May 17 Utah at Golden May 20 Golden state at necessary sunday spurs suns 106 san Antonio Bowen 12 00 Duncan 1224 915 Elson 13 00 Finley 611 45 Parker 1422 45 Ginobile 29 36 Horry 35 22 Vaughn 13 00 Oberto 12 Barry 0100 4182 2233 Phoenix Jjones 02 00 Marion 712 12 Stoudemire 619 811 Bell 38 22 Nash 1118 77 Diaw Barbosa 717 34 Thomas 23 00 totals 3984 2227 san Antonio 27 24 26 34111 Phoenix 26 27 22 31106 three Point goals san Antonio 716 Fin Ley Horry Bowen Ginobile Barry Parker Phoenix 614 Bell Nash Barbosa Marion Diaw Jjones fouled rebound Ssan Antonio 62 Duncan Phoenix 40 Stoudemire assists san Antonio 18 Parker Phoenix 18 Nash total fouls san Antonio Phoenix techno Antonio defensive three Phoenix defensive three Phoenix assistant coach Cavaliers nets 77 new Jersey Jefferson 712 Moore 49 Collins 24 00 Carter 723 66 Kidd 21112 Boone 26 12 Nachbar 59 22 Williams 03 22 00 00 Wright 0100 totals 2978 1416 Cleveland James 821 46 Gooden 715 Lugauskas 412 00 Pavlovic 611 12 Hughes 720 12 Varjao 14 00 Snow 00 00 Marshall 12 00 Gibson 12 00 totals 3587 611 new Jersey 2021181877 Cleveland 23 20 16 three Point goals new Jersey 520 Jef Ferson Kidd Carter Nachbar Williams Cleveland 517 Pavlovic Hughes James Marshall Varjao Gibson fouled rebound Snew Jersey 47 Carter Cleveland 61 Lugauskas assists new Jersey 20 Kidd Cleveland 21 James total fouls new Jersey Cleveland