SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Manu Ginobili and Nazr Mohammed made sure the San Antonio Spurs didn’t have to sweat it out in the closing seconds of this Game 5.

Manu Ginobili celebrated his return to the starting lineup with a career playoff-best 39 points and Mohammed scored nine of his 19 points during a 17-3 third-quarter run, sending the Spurs past the Seattle SuperSonics 103-90 Tuesday night and putting them within a victory of the Western Conference finals.

The cozy win was a relief to San Antonio fans who remembered this pivotal fifth game of the second round the last two years. Playing the Lakers both times, the Spurs won on a Los Angeles miss in the closing seconds two years ago then lost last year on Derek Fisher’s amazing buzzer-beater.

Ray Allen led Seattle with 19 points, but he was practically invisible in the first and third quarters – the ones coach Nate McMillan called “the most important quarters of our season” prior to tipoff.

Allen was scoreless in the opening period and his only point in the third was a free throw with 4.2 seconds left. He missed three foul shots that quarter after being 55-of-59 from the line in the postseason.

Sonics forward Rashard Lewis missed his second straight game because of a sprained left big toe. He may return Thursday night for Game 6 in Seattle, when the Sonics will be trying to extend their season.

The good news for Seattle fans is that the home team has won every game this series. The bad news: Game 5 winners have won 103 of the 123 seven-game series that were tied at 2 coming into Tuesday night. San Antonio has followed the trend each of the last two years, with both series ending in Game 6.

AP-ES-05-18-05 0029EDT