If there were any lingering doubts that Steve Nash did not deserve to be the NBA's most valuable player, the Phoenix Suns' point guard put them to rest Friday night.
Nash calmly buried the biggest shot of Game 6 -- a 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the Dallas Mavericks at 111-111 and force overtime.
Nash then scored seven of his game-high 39 points in the extra session -- including a 3-pointer with 3 minutes 23 seconds remaining -- to give the Suns the lead for good. Phoenix, which trailed by 16 points with 4 minutes remaining in the third quarter, rallied for a 130-126 overtime victory to win the Western Conference semifinals, 4-2.
PHOTO: EPA
The Suns will play in their first conference final since 1993.
They will play host to the San Antonio Spurs -- who won the season series with the Suns, 2-1 -- in Game 1 today in Phoenix. The Spurs are the only team to have a winning record against Phoenix this season.
Game 2 is scheduled for Tuesday night in Phoenix.
If Game 6 of this highly entertaining series proved anything, it was that no lead was ever safe against the high-powered Suns.
"That's our mentality," said Phoenix forward Shawn Marion, who scored 38 points and pulled down a game-high 16 rebounds. "We can score 16 points in a couple of minutes."
Dallas found that out again in the third quarter. The Mavericks' 16-point lead with four minutes left in the third quarter was not nearly enough. Nor was their seven-point lead entering the fourth quarter with Amare Stoudemire sitting on the Phoenix bench with five fouls.
But the Suns blew a five-point lead after they somehow opened the fourth quarter with a 14-2 run without Stoudemire.
Staring at the end of its season and still trailing by five points with a little more than six minutes remaining in regulation, Dallas answered with its own 14-4 run for a 95-90 advantage with 2:40 to play.
And when Stoudemire fouled out with 1:40 remaining and the Suns trailing by 105-101 after an Erick Dampier free throw, it looked as if Phoenix was headed home for Game 7.
Or maybe not.
Stoudemire's replacement, Steven Hunter, scored on a tip-in with 1:28 left, then Nash buried a 3-pointer with a minute remaining in regulation to give Phoenix a 106-105 lead.
It was a harbinger of things to come. After Dallas had rallied again for a 111-108 lead on two free throws by Jerry Stackhouse with 11.5 seconds to play, Nash made another 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds left to tie the score at 111-111.
"I knew we needed a 3," Nash said. "So I pushed the ball down the floor."
Dallas coach Avery Johnson would have preferred that Nash never touched the ball. Or, if he did, that the Mavericks fouled.
And when Nash tied the score, Johnson said he wanted the Mavericks to call timeout.
They did not.
When Stackhouse missed a long jumper at the buzzer signaling the end of regulation, the teams were headed for overtime, where Marion and Nash combined for 18 of Phoenix's 19 points.
last chance
Dallas, which received a team-high 36 points from Jason Terry, had one last chance to send the game to double overtime.
But with the Mavericks trailing by 126-123, Dirk Nowitzki, who finished with 28 points, missed an off-balanced, turnaround (and some might argue, ill-advised) 3-point attempt with 9.9 seconds remaining.
In all, Nash -- who also had 12 assists and nine rebounds -- fell one rebound short of his second consecutive triple-double. Nash's 12 assists were one fewer than the Mavericks compiled.
Nash scored more than 30 points in each of the final three games of the series, including a career-high 48 points in Game 4. During the regular season, Nash scored more than 30 points just twice.
Over the six-game series, Nash averaged 30.3 points, 12.0 assists and 6.5 rebounds to gain a measure of revenge against his former team.
Dallas decided not to re-sign Nash over the summer after Nash had spent six seasons with the Mavericks.
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