On Monday in Game 4, second round of the 2007 NBA Playoffs, a late run by the Phoenix Suns gave them a 104-98 win on the road against the San Antonio Spurs. Late in the game Spurs forward Robert Horry gave a hard foul to Nash as he dribbled near the sideline in the backcourt, prompting a near fight. Here's almost everything Nash said in the post-game press conference:

On the Suns coming back in the 4th quarter to win:

Steve Nash: It was a great win. A gutsy win. They were playing extremely well in the second and third quarter. We had a hard time stopping them. They were making a lot of big threes and big shots. Playing at a really efficient rate, and somehow we just managed to hang in there mentally and give ourselves a chance to pick up our defense, pick up our offense and really play some better basketball. It took a lot of mental toughness.

On getting checked by Robert Horry:

Nash: I was trying to escape between him and the boards and he got me with a nice hip-check. What can I say. It was a pretty nice check.

On getting up and going after Horry:

Nash: I just thought it was, you have to kind of stand up for yourself sometimes. You got to roll with the punches, literally. I felt like that was a little uncalled for. It's hard to always take the high road and always turn the other cheek.

On if he was expecting that Horry was about to foul him:

Nash: I knew he was going to foul me. I just didn't know it was going to be of that variety. So, a little surprised.

On it being hard to always take the high road:

Nash: At what point is enough, enough. At what point are you supposed to take offense. The league has made it very difficult nowadays to stand up for yourself. It's their job, but at the same time their opinion doesn't always coincide with yours. It's difficult. And I'm not really sure what the answer is to that.

On the league reviewing guys leaving the bench and possible penalties or suspensions:

Nash: First of all, that would be terrible. If that silly play at the end of a game, when the game is really over, if that causes a detriment to the rest of the series that would be ridiculous. Second of all, I don't know, the whole guys on the court thing, it wasn't a fight, it wasn't like guys left the bench to enter a fight. So I don't see what, in the big picture, the deal is. If you want to be technical about it, guys are on the court the whole game cheering for their teammates. At one time or another they're over the line. So if someone's not throwing a punch, if someone doesn't run out there and enter into a fight, I don't see, I think it's a moot point.

On the pace of the game on Monday and in general:

Nash: I think there's been a few times in the series when the pace has been to our liking. So, there were some times tonight. I'm not really sure if even in the fourth quarter the pace was to our liking. I think we were efficient but it wasn't necessarily all in transition. We had a couple transition baskets, but we had a lot of baskets in the halfcourt too. The score may be a little bit misleading.

On the series not being over yet thanks to their win in San Antonio:

Nash: It would have been a pretty tough task to be down 3-1 and to have lost homecourt. I think we took care of both of those circumstances. Especially a team that's been there before, three times, and won a championship, go do down 3-1 would have been very difficult. We've given ourselves a little life here and need to be focused and prepared for the next game at home.

InsideHoops.com is your online basketball home. Hit our basketball forum.