Suns, Spurs advance, will meet in West semifinals

In the battle of Texas, the San Antonio Spurs outlasted Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks last night to take their best of seven series four games to two and advance to the Western Conference semifinals that will begin on Monday night.

The location of that first game was decided last night as well, as the Phoenix Suns earned the right to host the game by disposing of the Portland Trailblazers by a score of 99-90 in Portland. Jason Richardson led the Suns with 28 points as he continued his strong playoff performance.

“Everybody knows what Steve can do, and everybody knows what Amare can do. I’m just trying to be that wild card, that third scorer, and help us get wins and try to go deep into the playoffs,” said Richardson.

Dallas was the second seed and San Antonio the seventh, but they lost in the first round for the third time in four years. Dallas ousted the Spurs in the first round a year ago, so this was payback time for San Antonio.

“Going into the playoffs as a No. 2 seed, it is all we could have wanted. We just happened to see a tough No. 7 seed that got rolling at the right time,” observed Nowitzki.

The Suns/Spurs series should be a good one, and we’ll get to see if Steve Nash can get by Tim Duncan when it really counts and get to the Western Conference Finals.