It came down to Steve Nash's nose against Tony Parker's hard head.

The San Antonio Spurs, taking advantage of a missing Nash in the game's final minute, beat the Phoenix Suns 111-106 on Sunday afternoon to steal home court advantage and go one up in the best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal.

Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns has his nose attended to after running into Tony Parker late in the fourth quarter of the Spurs' Game 1 semifinal victory.
(Matt York/Associated Press)

And what a semi it's shaping up to be.

The evenly matched clubs traded the lead eight times in the first eleven minutes of the final quarter, setting up a frenetic, dramatic final minute that showed again why sports can be so compelling.

Setting up the last 60 seconds was an incident at mid-court just short of two minutes to go. Parker, the Spurs' outstanding guard who had just intercepted a pass, tried to drop a shoulder and go around Nash. The Victoria native wasn't buying the fake and refused to move.
 
Unfortunately for both, Parker had already lowered his head to bull around Nash and instead ran right into the bridge of the nose of the league's two-time MVP. Parker went down in a daze and Nash to the bench with a deep cut that would not stop bleeding.

That's when the NBA's "Magic Johnson rule" kicked in, instituted when the Hall of Fame guard revealed his HIV status in 1991. If Nash was bleeding or had blood on his jersey he couldn't play.

At first, the staff were able to change the shirt and staunch the flow long enough for Nash to hit a three pointer and a layup to make the score 106-104 Spurs. But the referees sent him back to the bench leaving a trail of blood.

"There was nothing I could do," said Nash, afterwards. "It was obviously pretty frustrating, but it was out of my hands."

The cut required six stitches.

Clutch freethrows

Nash-less, the Suns would score just once in the final 54.8 seconds on a pair of free throws by Amare Stoudemire. But the Spurs grabbed five, all on free throws, as Phoenix fouled to try to stay close.

Nash came back in with 9.1 to go, but never saw the ball as Raja Bell missed a contested three and the game ended on a foul and a Tim Duncan single.

Asked whether he thought the Suns would have won had he not been forced to sit, Nash said it was impossible to know.

"But I think we would have had a shot. It was pretty bad timing, but you know that's life."

Duncan led all scorers with 33 points and 16 rebounds, adding three blocks. Parker, playing at the end with a headache and an obvious bump on the forehead, had eight assists to go along with his 32 points.

For the Suns, Nash had 31 and eight helpers; Stoudemire 20 points, 18 rebounds and an impressive five blocks. Leandro Barbosa, the NBA's top sixth man this season, contributed 18 points, but took an unnecessary foul with 32.8 seconds left when Phoenix, trailing by three, could have played the clock and waited for a defensive stop.

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said a 49-35 advantage in rebounds "was really an emphasis for us," because the Suns are such an athletic, high-scoring bunch.

"We really couldn't afford to give them second-chance points. We did a better job of that than we usually do," he said.

Game 2 is Tuesday night in Phoenix.