Suns fight back late to surprise the Spurs

The Phoenix Suns’ 12-1 run to end Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals gave them a 104-98 victory Monday night that evened the best-of-seven series with the Spurs at 2-2 at San Antonio.

“Simply, we stuck with it. We could’ve folded a lot of times,” said the Suns’ Steve Nash. “They were playing great and made a lot of shots.”

The tension that has been building in the series boiled over with 18 seconds left when the Spurs’ Robert Horry hit Nash with a forearm that knocked Nash into the scorers’ table while dribbling upcourt with San Antonio trailing, 100-97, after missing its fourth straight shot.

Horry was given a flagrant foul and ejected. The Suns’ Raja Bell received a technical foul.

Game 5 is Wednesday night at Phoenix and there could be suspensions for Horry and players leaving the bench.

Stoudemire led Phoenix with 26 points and Nash had 24 points and 15 assists.

Tony Parker led the Spurs with 23 points and Tim Duncan had 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Cleveland 87, New Jersey 85 -- LeBron James had 30 points, nine rebounds and seven assists and the Cavaliers made the Nets’ big three look small at East Rutherford, N.J., to take a 3-1 series lead and move within one game of their first trip to the Eastern Conference finals since 1992.

Vince Carter had 25 points, nine rebounds and nine assists but made only six of 23 shots for the Nets. Kidd had a playoff-high 17 rebounds but missed 11 of his 13 shots for five points. Richard Jefferson scored 15 on three-for-12 shooting.