Steve Nash scored 20 points, despite playing with his right eye swollen shut after taking an inadvertent elbow from Tim Duncan in the third quarter.

Amare Stoudemire led the Suns with 29 points as Phoenix closed out the best-of-seven series in four games and beat the Spurs in the playoffs for the first time in five attempts.

Phoenix will now have a chance to rest before opening the conference finals against either reigning NBA champions Los Angeles or Utah.

The Lakers hold a commanding 3-0 lead in their series and will try to close out a sweep of their own in game four on Monday. No team has come back from an 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven NBA series.

Nash, who looked like he needed a boxing cut man more than a basketball physiotherapist, scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter to help scotch a Spurs rally.

"He looked like Ray 'Boom Boom' Mancini," Suns forward Grant Hill said. "It forced him to focus because he was shooting out of one eye."

The injury to Nash recalled the 2007 Western Conference semi-finals, when Nash's nose was gashed when he collided with San Antonio's Tony Parker in game one.

That time the Suns ended up losing the series, but Nash wasn't going to let that happen again.

"I've lost to these guys a lot and we had a great opportunity," Nash said. "You don't get many cracks like this. I just wanted to give what I could for my teammates."

Even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich couldn't help but be happy for Nash.

"He's been waiting to get this done and I couldn't be happier for a class, class, class guy," Popovich said. "I hate him, but he's classy."

Parker led the Spurs with 22 points, but San Antonio couldn't avoid being swept for the first time since 2001.

"I'm proud of our effort," Popovich said. "It's just hard to guard those guys, hard for us to guard them for 48 minutes.

"As games would go on and we're there in every fourth quarter, somebody steps up for them and starts making shots."

George Hill had 17 points, and was fouled while hitting a three-pointer with 26.5 seconds left. He converted the four-point play to close the gap to two points and give San Antonio a glimmer of hope.

However, Manu Ginobili then missed a three-pointer and San Antonio's hopes of adding to their four NBA titles expired for good.

"They shot the ball incredibly, they defended pretty well," Duncan said. "Tonight we missed a couple of layups and they came back and hit threes. It was kind of what happened the entire series."