The Nuggets, rallying from a 12-point third-quarter deficit, tied the score 113-113 on JR Smith's free throw with 1:02 left. But Strawberry, who finished with 14 points, bailed out the Suns (5-2).

Grant Hill led a balanced Phoenix attack with 17 points. Victoria's Steve Nash had 14 points and 10 assists, Shawn Marion had 14 points and eight rebounds, Raja Bell scored 13 and rookie Alando Tucker had 12.

Allen Iverson led Denver with 24 points, Carmelo Anthony scored 22 and Smith finished with 17. Smith missed two free throws with 2.3 seconds left.

Anthony and Iverson combined to outscore the Suns in the first period (24-22) as the Nuggets built a 32-22 lead. Anthony, working inside, had 13 points, and Iverson, hitting mostly jumpers, scored 11.

The Nuggets (4-3) then let their reserves handle the scoring for most of the second quarter, until Anthony and Iverson returned late in the period and helped Denver to a 66-54 halftime edge. Anthony finished the half with 19 points and Iverson had 15.

Stoudemire, playing his first exhibition game since arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Oct. 2, had no trouble shooting the ball but his ballhandling showed signs of rustiness. Playing 12 minutes in the first half, he was 3-for-3 from the field, made both his free-throw attempts and grabbed four rebounds, but committed three turnovers. He finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 17 minutes.

Overall, the sloppy Suns had 14 turnovers in the first two quarters, leading to 20 Denver points. The Nuggets turned the ball over seven times, accounting for 10 Phoenix points.

Both teams were missing key guards. The Suns were without Leandro Barbosa, last season's sixth man of the year in the league. He was out with bruised ribs he got in Sunday's exhibition win over Charlotte, but is expected to be ready for the season Nov. 1 at Seattle. The Nuggets were without Anthony Carter, who has missed all of the pre-season with a metacarpal fracture of the right hand.

Also missing from the Nuggets' lineup was centre Marcus Camby, because of back spasms, and guard Chucky Atkins left the game with 8:37 remaining because of a groin injury. The Suns also lost centre Brian Skinner with 11:03 left with a right ankle sprain.

The game was televised on TNT after the cable network switched from the scheduled Los Angeles Lakers-Utah Jazz game at San Diego Sports Arena because of the wildfires.

The teams played on a new US$100,000 floor which the Suns installed before Tuesday's public scrimmage.

The Mavericks made a habit of clinching playoff series on the road, and this was their biggest yet. Now Dallas is headed to the NBA finals for the first time in the franchise’s 26-year history.

Dirk Nowitzki shook off an awful start to lead a Mavericks’ second-half comeback that beat the Phoenix Suns 102-93 on Saturday night to win the Western Conference finals 4-2.

Nowitzki, coming off a career playoff high 50 points in Game 5, scored 16 of his 24 points in the second half and the Mavericks clinched a series on the road for the third time in three tries in these playoffs.

“We’ve been a good road team all season long, we believed in each other,” Nowitzki said. “We went through some ups and downs this season, but the playoffs is all about showing heart and playing together.”

Dallas opens the NBA finals at home against the Miami Heat on Thursday night. It will be a showdown of finals’ first-timers, the first time that’s happened since Baltimore played Milwaukee in 1971.

The Suns, trying to survive a fifth elimination game in the playoffs, appeared well on their way to sending this series back to Dallas for a Game 7: They shot out to a 16-point first-quarter lead and were up by as many as 18 in the second.

But the Phoenix offense withered in a flurry of foul trouble, and the Suns fell in the conference finals for the second year in a row.

Dallas outscored the Suns 63-42 in the second half.

Josh Howard added 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Suns and Jason Terry added 17 points, all in the second half. Jerry Stackhouse scored 19 for Dallas.

Boris Diaw had 30 points and 11 rebounds for Phoenix. Steve Nash added 19 points and nine assists and Shawn Marion 13 points and 11 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa scored 14.

Dallas used a 17-2 outburst to claim its first lead since 2-0, 68-66 on DaSagana Diop’s rebound stuff shot with 9:42 remaining. Stackhouse’s 3-pointer with 5:01 left put Dallas up 83-77. Howard’s 3-pointer at 1:29 clinched it at 93-83.

Nowitzki, 3-for-13 for a season-low 11 points in his previous game in Phoenix, was 2-for-9 with eight points in the first half, and the Mavericks trailed 51-39 at the break.

His second three-point play of the quarter — on Thomas’ fourth foul — cut the lead to 64-56, the first time the Mavs had been within single digits since the game’s opening minutes.

His 18-footer cut it to 66-60, followed by his 12-footer that sliced Phoenix’s lead to 66-62 with 58.2 seconds to play in the third.

Barbosa’s layup was waved off as a 24-second shot clock violation with 9.2 seconds to play, and the score was 66-62 entering the fourth quarter.

Diaw made eight of 10 shots, mostly on driving layups, en route to 20 first-half points and eight rebounds.

Phoenix, outrebounded by Dallas in each of the first five games in the series, had a 24-17 advantage on the boards in the first half. But the Mavericks finished with a 39-36 advantage on the boards.

There were 26 fouls called in the first half, 13 on each team. Four Suns had three apiece — Diaw, Raja Bell, Tim Thomas and Barbosa. Terry had three fouls and played just three minutes in the first half for Dallas. Devin Harris also drew three first-half fouls for the Mavs.

The Mavericks came out flat and the Suns pounced on the opportunity, bolting to a 26-10 lead on Marion’s two free throws with 1:08 to go in the first quarter. Phoenix led 29-14 at the end of the period.

The Pacers won Game 1 when point guard Anthony Johnson made two free throws with 0.9 seconds left in the game.

The Pacers will have to keep an eye on Jason Kidd and Vince Carter. The Nets' two All-Stars struggled in Game 1.

Carter scored 31 points, but he needed 33 shots to reach that total. He was 1-for-8 on three-pointers. Kidd had five points on 2-of-11 shooting to go with four rebounds and eight assists.

Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal hopes to have a better Game 2, too. O'Neal battled foul trouble in Game 1. He finished with 15 points, with 11 scored in the fourth quarter, only three rebounds and turned the ball over five times. He's committed 14 turnovers in the past two games.

O'Neal credited New Jersey's defense for his struggles.

"This team always plays great defense," he said. "They are always able to front and double from different positions. They put guys in front and in the back."

REPLAY: The Indiana Pacers went into New Jersey and took away the home-court advantage.

Pacers point guard Anthony Johnson made two free throws with 0.9 seconds to give Indiana a 90-88 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Stephen Jackson led four Pacers in double-figures with 18 points. Fred Jones and Jermaine O'Neal added 15 points each.

The Nets had a chance to tie the game, but Richard Jefferson missed a 21-foot jumper in front of the Pacers' bench as time expired.

The Pacers have won six of their past seven games and now have home-court advantage in the series.

"It's been an up-and-down season for us," Pacers center Jeff Foster said. "Obviously, to come in as the sixth seed and to win the first game, that improves your chances dramatically."

The San Antonio Spurs announced they have signed guard Melvin Sanders. Per club policy terms of the deal were not released.

The 6-5 guard has played in eight games in two stints with the Spurs this season, averaging 2.6 points and 1.9 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game. He finished with a career-high 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting in a 104-76 win over Charlotte on 1/24.

Sanders had been playing for the Fayetteville Patriots of the NBA Development League prior to his call-up. In 19 games with the Patriots he averaged 14.0 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 32.2 minutes per game. Sanders posted a season-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting at Little Rock on 1/19.

Sanders averaged 15.6 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists in five games with the Spurs summer league team at the 2005 Rocky Mountain Revue. The Oklahoma State product spent the 2004-05 season with the Dakota Wizards of the CBA where he averaged 18.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists on his way to being selected to the All-CBA Second Team and the CBA All-Defensive First Team.

The Chicago Bulls today re-signed rookie Luke Schenscher to a second 10-day contract.

The 7-1, 265-pound center has appeared in five games since joining Chicago on March 5 from the D-League’s Fort Worth Flyers. With the Bulls he has averaged 2.8 ppg and 1.6 rpg in 8.6 mpg while shooting .778 from the field.

In last night’s 95-66 win over Portland, Schenscher registered season-highs of 10 points (5-6 FG) and four rebounds in 17:18 of action.

Chicago’s roster now stands at 14.

Looking for that perfect gift for the person who has everything?

Here’s an idea: basketball’s original rules written by James Naismith in 1891.

Price: $10 million. Could go for less under the right circumstances.

For the first time, the two typewritten pages that contain the 13 rules are on the block.

“It’s not an easy decision, but it’s time,” said Ian Naismith, grandson of the game’s inventor. Ian Naismith has carried the rules inside a fireproof, combination-locked metal briefcase since 1995.

James Naismith had folded the original copy — two creases — and slipped it in his office desk drawer. It spent three years at the YMCA in Denver and three decades in Robinson Gym at the University of Kansas after he arrived in Lawrence in 1898, where he served as first basketball coach, as a chaplain, physical education teacher and department head.

The rules always have belonged in the Naismith family, although technically they are owned by the nonprofit Naismith International Basketball Foundation.

By contract they are Ian Naismith’s to sell, and he’s seeking a corporation or corporations to step forward.

The income won’t line Naismith’s pocket. Rather, it will pour into the foundation, which continues its original mission of spreading the word about sportsmanship but has expanded to include humanitarian efforts for children. Those include supplying goods and services to shelters and orphanages and sponsoring camps for underprivileged children in the Caribbean.

That way, the rules will go full circle, Ian Naismith said. James Naismith was orphaned at age 9.

“My granddad once said he felt like he started a 100-yard dash 10 yards behind,” Ian Naismith said. “I like to think that he would approve of the money from his rules going to a foundation that helps children. It’s not my money. It’s his money because it’s his creation.”

A sale comes attached with a few conditions. It’s a sponsorship deal. The new owner will buy a two-year nationwide tour of the rules, which will ride in luxury aboard a 40-foot motor coach. Naismith hopes to collect signatures of basketball dignitaries and other fans on a card along the way until the tour reaches its final stop — permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

It will conclude a long, strange journey for the rules.

James Naismith was a 30-year-old instructor at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Mass., when he was asked by his boss to come up with an indoor activity for his energetic gym class. He was given a two-week window, and on the final day, it all came into place for Naismith.

On Dec. 21, 1891, Naismith scribbled out 13 rules that were essentially built around four fundamental principles: no running with the ball, no tackling or rough body contact, a horizontal goal above the heads of players and freedom of any player to obtain the ball and score at any time.

He handed the page to his secretary, who typed them into two pages. Class was about to start as the second page was finished. Naismith rushed them to the gym and thumb-tacked them to a bulletin board inside the gym doors.

The game was such an immediate hit, one of the students took the rules and hid them in his trunk, thinking he had a souvenir. Naismith got them back. Two months later they showed up in the school newspaper, and copies of rules were packed inside the Bibles of globe-trotting training-school graduates. The game spread quickly.

Then the rules found a home in Naismith’s desk.

James Naismith’s youngest son, Jimmy — Ian’s father — had a hunch they might be valuable and had his father sign them in 1931. James also added the date “6-28-31” and erased “Feb. 1892” and wrote “Dec. 1891” to clarify the date.

After James Naismith died in 1939, Jimmy, now living in Corpus Christi, Texas, ended up with the rules. He kept them squirreled away in the family’s dining room and told his children never to let anybody know where they were kept.

“I remember when I was 7 or 8, Dad had them in a secret drawer,” Ian Naismith said. “I wasn’t sure what it was, but I knew it was something special.”

In the late 1950s, after the family had moved around the Midwest, they returned to Corpus Christi, and the rules went to a safe-deposit box in a bank.

In 1968, a private collector offered $1 million for the document. Instead, the rules were loaned to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., but only a copy was displayed while the original collected dust in a safe.

Ian Naismith led a family effort to take back the papers — appraised at $5 million in 1997 — about a decade ago, and he has taken them to college and NBA cities and events such as the Final Four and NBA All-Star Game.

Once a buyer is found, they will be on display for everybody.

“They’ve been pretty much unseen for 110 years,” Ian Naismith said. “There’s no reason for them to be in a vault or anything like that for another 110 years.”