Suns knock Celtics from unbeatens
Last Updated: Friday, November 6, 2009 | 11:54 PM ET
The Associated Press
Boston Celtics forward Paul Pierce is fouled on his way to the basket by the Phoenix Suns' Channing Frye during a basketball game Friday. (Winslow Townson/Associated Press)Jason Richardson bounced back from his worst game of the season to score 34 points with 10 rebounds and the Phoenix Suns rebounded from their only defeat to beat the Boston Celtics 110-103 on Friday night.
"They could see after the first that I had the stroke going," Richardson said.
"In this offence, every night it's going to be someone different. It was a [feeling] tonight, like everything you throw up is going to go in. I wanted to come out, be aggressive and take it from there."
Kevin Garnett had a season-high 26 points for Boston — the most he's scored since missing the end of the 2008-09 season and the playoffs with strained ligaments in his right knee.
Steve Nash had 16 points with 12 assists for Phoenix, shaking loose to hit a 3-pointer with 51 seconds left after Boston closed an 11-point fourth-quarter gap to four points.
Amare Stoudemire added 22 points, while Richardson finished 6 for 7 from 3-point range.
Boston was trying to start 7-0 for the second time in three years. The Celtics won their first eight games in 2007-08 — and first 13 at home — en route to their record 17th NBA title.
Rajon Rondo scored 14 with 11 assists, and Paul Pierce and Ray Allen each scored 16 points for Boston.
Rasheed Wallace had eight points, missing all six 3-point attempts — five of them in the fourth quarter, when Boston trailed entering it for the first time all season.
"The only thing I didn't like, with 3 1/2 minutes left, instead of searching for wide-open two-pointers, we went into three mode. And I didn't think we had to do that," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
"That, to me, was uncharacteristic of us."
Richardson, who was suspended the first two games of the season because of his arrest and conviction on drunken driving charges, scored the first eight Phoenix points in the fourth quarter, while Boston went more than four minutes without scoring.
