The Suns, with their 110-103 win at the Garden, sullied the record of what had been the last undefeated team in the Eastern Conference and gave the Celts some serious cause for thought.

For the second straight game, the C's went up against an opponent grooved enough to shoot better than 50 percent. And this time, that foe pulled off two firsts against these Celts - a win and a 100-point game.

Kevin Garnett's best offensive night of the year - 26 points on 13-of-20 shooting - was thus wasted.

The C's were flagging when Ray Allen, two minutes after hitting a big 3-pointer, drove for a crowd-shaking tomahawk dunk off the right wing. After an Amare Stoudemire drive, Garnett tipped in a Rasheed Wallace miss that cut the Suns' lead to 103-98 with 2:56 left.

Steve Nash hit 1-of-2 free throws, and this time Garnett scored off an Allen feed. The Celtics missed their next three shots, including a Wallace 3-point attempt that rimmed out with a minute left, giving Phoenix the ball with 59.9 seconds to go.

Wallace came back out without his usual headband, but the new look didn't bother Nash.

The Phoenix point guard launched a a trey over Rajon Rondo for a 107-100 lead with 50.9 seconds remaining.

Paul Pierce was fouled with 45 seconds left but missed the first of two, highlighting an atrocious 9-of-18 night from the line by the Celtics . Nash lost the ball, though, and Rondo converted off the break, forcing the Suns into a timeout with 22.5 seconds left.

Stoudemire was fouled with 14.7 seconds to go and hit both for a 109-103 edge.

Jason Richardson was the option the Celtics couldn't account for all night.

The Suns veteran was 5-of-5 from downtown through the first three quarters and hit his sixth straight bomb early in the fourth. He came right back with a three-point drive for his 33rd point that gave the Suns a 93-85 lead with 10:10 left. The run peaked at 9-0 on former Boston College star Jared Dudley's layup.

The Celtics had six shots and turned over the ball twice by the time Wallace, off a Garnett dish, spun in a reverse layup. Nash missed, and Wallace came back with a 10-foot banker. Allen popped open for a trey.

Channing Frye pushed the Suns' lead back out to six (98-92), but Rondo rebounded an Allen miss, drove for the basket and was fouled but missed the free throw.

Frye then buried a killer, left-side trey for a 101-94 Phoenix lead.

Richardson had a murderous second quarter that included 14 points. He then buried his first two trey attempts of the third quarter as Phoenix continued its hot ways.

The Suns pushed out as far as nine points (82-73) before Marquis Daniels scored five straight for the C's, including a three-point play out of the post at Nash's expense.

Daniels then found Pierce at the top of the circle for a 3-pointer that cut the Phoenix lead to 84-81.

A Wallace baseline turnaround cut the Phoenix edge to two (85-83) with 42.5 seconds left. Rondo missed two free throws that would have tied the game with four seconds left in the third.

The Suns got off to a pure start, shooting 61.1 percent in the first 12 minutes and eventually took a 48-37 lead.

Garnett ended the carnage with a baseline jumper, and Pierce finally got untracked by coming right back with an 18-footer that cut the Suns' margin to 48-41 with 3:40 remaining in the opening half. Both sides swapped scoring possessions all the way down to a Louis Amundson drive that put the Suns ahead 57-51 at the break.