"You know we do have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona," Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni said after the Suns' morning shootaround. "You could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision."

The NBA suspended Stoudemire and Diaw for Wednesday night's Game 5 of what's become an intense, rough Western Conference semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs.

The two violated an NBA rule by leaving the bench area after Robert Horry's flagrant foul on Steve Nash in the final seconds of Phoenix's 104-98 victory in Game 4, a win that tied the series at 2-2.

Horry was suspended for Game 5 and Friday night's Game 6.

Commissioner David Stern canceled his scheduled trip to Phoenix for Game 5.

While acknowledging their two players broke the rule, the Suns believe they got the worst of an incident instigated by the Spurs.

"We definitely got punished for what they did," Stoudemire said. "But I guess that's the rules right now where it stands, and I have no control over it."

The rule, strictly enforced in the past, is aimed at preventing a fight from escalating into a full-scale brawl.

"I know for a fact that Boris Diaw would never, ever be in a fight," D'Antoni said. "I know that. To suspend him for going to Steve Nash, for looking and curiosity, that's a little harsh."

The Frenchman Diaw said he could not remember being in a fight, even as a kid.

"I've been in the NBA for four years and I haven't got even one technical foul," Diaw said. "I was just looking to see that Steve was all right."

But he agreed he should have known better than to walk toward Nash.

"You fight against your instincts, but you've got to overcome that," Diaw said. "That was my mistake to walk a few feet toward Steve."

Stoudemire abandoned his excuse that he was trying to check in to the game.

"I know you can't step on the court and at that time it was a natural reaction," he said. "I was more concerned about Steve's health, and I got penalized for it."

Stoudemire said he would watch the game from his restaurant, "Stoudemire's Downtown," across the street from US Airways Center.

Meanwhile, Horry said he was "an old school guy" and that in his early years, his foul would have been no big deal. He said he bumped Nash when he realized he wouldn't be able to get in front of him to draw an offensive foul.

"If it would have been anybody but Steve Nash, it probably wouldn't have been two games," he said after the Spurs shootaround. "But you know Steve is a great player, MVP. He's a focal point of the NBA now and they just have to protect their players."

Horry said Nash over-dramatized the bump when he went flying into the scorer's table.

"I thought I'd just bump him a little bit," Horry said. "As you know, the great acting skills Steve has, when he hit the floor, then flopped and did 'Oh, I'm dying here' -- it happens. I really wasn't trying to hurt him. I had no malicious intent to hurt Steve. I like Steve. He's a good person."

Horry already was a target for Phoenix fans. When he was with the Suns in 1997, he tossed a towel in the face of then-coach Danny Ainge.

Now Phoenix fans have changed Horry's nickname from "Big Shot Rob" to "Cheap Shot Rob."

"It doesn't bother me," he said. "I was already hated here in Phoenix anyway, but the messed up thing is the boos were kind of disappearing. Damn, now I've got to start all over."

Popovich repeated his belief that Horry's foul was not that serious.

"It was a hard foul, it was a playoff foul," he said. "I've watched a lot of playoff games and seen harder fouls, so I didn't think that that was excessive. But on the film, he did what he did. He had his forearm up and it moved forward and he got suspended. I think one game would have probably been good enough. I think that two is a bit excessive."

Jalen Rose, the Suns' seldom-used reserve, knew the suspensions were coming. The same thing happened to him when he played for Indiana against Chicago in the 1998 Eastern Conference finals. When a fight broke out near the Bulls' bench, Rose took "literally one step" onto the court in Game 4. The result was a one-game suspension, and the Bulls went on to win the series.

"Unfortunately, it does take something like this to change the rule," Rose said. "A lot of times something's not addressed until an incident happens that's well-discussed, well-publicized, well-documented."

Nash, knocked around like a pinball in this series, refused to address the issue.

"I don't really want to waste any energy talking about it," he said.