Spurs rally to eclipse gritty run by Suns

A town pumped on rage seemed to inspire a team fueled on passion. While Phoenix fumed, the Suns sizzled.

But ultimately, the San Antonio Spurs rode out the waves of emotions generated by the one-game suspensions of the Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw, doggedly chased the Suns after Phoenix raced out to an early lead, ultimately caught them late in the fourth quarter and then hung on for an 88-85 victory Wednesday night at US Airways Center in Game 5 of their Western Conference semi-final series.

The victory gives San Antonio a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with Game 6 scheduled for Friday night in San Antonio.

“We probably didn’t have enough juice to get over the hump,” said Phoenix Coach Mike D’Antoni. “This was about trying to gut it out.”

San Antonio was led by Manu Ginobili, who had 26 points and 10 rebounds, and Tim Duncan, with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

Shawn Marion had a team-high 24 points and 17 rebounds for Phoenix. Steve Nash had 19 points and 12 assists, but made only six of 19 from the field.

Stoudemire and Diaw were suspended for leaving the bench after San Antonio’s Robert Horry sent Nash careening into the scorer’s table at the end of Game 4. Horry was given a two-game suspension.

The loss of Stoudemire and Diaw had caused outrage in Phoenix.

“It feels strange,” San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. “It doesn’t feel like a normal Game 5.”

Anyone spending the day in Phoenix could feel it.

It was reflected in the headline on the editorial page of Wednesday’s Arizona Republic: “NBA to Suns: Drop Dead.”

It could be seen in the street vendors’ T-shirts that read “Free Amare” and directed insults at Stu Jackson, the NBA official who handed down the ruling on Stoudemire and Diaw.

It could be heard in the pregame news conference when D’Antoni said of his team: “Instead of being upset, I’m kind of proud. They know what’s right and wrong.”

In a charged atmosphere in front of a sellout crowd, the Suns, after falling behind, 9-4, caught fire, going on a 20-2 run, including 16 straight points.

“Everybody was so excited, so pumped up,” Ginobili said. “ ... There’s so much passion. It was hard for us not to get fired up in that atmosphere.”

Marion, who carried the burden of making up for Stoudemire’s absence the most, scored 11 of the 20 points in the run.

And while Marion soared, Duncan stumbled. With Stoudemire sitting out, 6-foot-9 Kurt Thomas replaced him, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for Phoenix as far as shutting down Duncan.

Duncan struggled against Thomas in single coverage in Game 4, and it was more of the same for much of the first half of Game 5. Duncan was just one for five from the field in the first quarter, finishing the half at four for 10.

“A lot of it might have been their fans,” Duncan said. “A lot of it might have been their emotions. Whatever you want to call it, we just couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean if we wanted to.”

The Suns led, 24-13, after the first 12 minutes and 44-33 at the half. In recording their lowest point total for a half this season, the Spurs shot only 33.3% from the floor, while shooting only 13 for 39.

Whatever the Suns discussed in the locker room at the half, it seemed to inspire Duncan, who seemed to suddenly figure out Thomas. Duncan scored seven of the Spurs’ first nine points of the third quarter.

But just when he found his shooting touch, Duncan stopped shooting.

After scoring on a driving layup with 8:53 to play in the third quarter, Duncan took only one more shot from the floor, which he missed, until just under two minutes remained in the game.

After chasing the Suns since they had gone on their first-quarter run, the Spurs finally caught them on a Tony Parker jumper with just under two minutes to play.

Bruce Bowen’s three-pointer from the corner gave San Antonio an 84-81 lead with 36.3 seconds remaining.

After missing a three-pointer, Nash was fouled by Bowen with 11.7 seconds to play and made both free throws to cut the margin to one, 84-83.

Phoenix never got closer.

The passion had run dry.

steve.springer@latimes.com