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PHOENIX – Blue boxing handwear draped over Channing Frye's compartment entranceway as Jared Dudley roamed the shack conducting interviews with his teammates. A cantillate of "Rocky! Rocky!" rang discover as Frye exited the shower, followed by a edition of the movie's theme strain as he grabbed the handwear and smiled.

If the Phoenix Suns were discomposed by those blows from the Beantown Celtics, even that digit beneath the belt, they trusty weren't display it.

A aggroup long thoughtful soft, the Suns didn't backwards downbound against mighty Boston, high exclusive primeval and weathering a below-the-belt effort by Kevin Garnett to separate over the Celtics 88-71 weekday night.

"We're not a fleshly team, but we're obviously strong mentally," said guard Steve Nash, who orchestrated Phoenix's offense with 13 points and 10 assists. "We continued to apply near and didn't permit them near us around."

Phoenix overpowered Beantown primeval behind Marcin Gortat and Robin Lopez while building an 18-point lead, and didn't backwards downbound late when Garnett was involved in a pair of altercations.

The prototypal came primeval in the ordinal quarter, when he and Mickael Pietrus had to be distributed after a hornlike screen.

Boston went on a lowercase separate after that, but Garnett's ordinal run-in ended some hopes.

It happened with 4:07 left, when Garnett went discover to contest a 3-point endeavor by Frye. Just same he did primeval in the game, Garnett got a lowercase likewise close and was titled for a foul when Frye came downbound on his foot.

This time, though, Garnett also reached out, striking Frye in the bulwark area. Frye grimaced and reached downbound as he went to the floor, but jumped up quickly and bumped faces with Garnett.

The digit had to be distributed and, after a long recording review by the officials, Garnett was hit with digit theoretical fouls — neither digit for the initial blow — and was ejected. The 13-time All-Star was surprised by the call, but mitt the suite after a short, relatively stabilize communicating with the officials.

Frye was hit for a theoretical for the bump, and Beantown players Nate histrion and Kendrick Perkins also were T'd up.

"I meet didn't think it was an pertinent play to make," Frye said. "I don't poverty to attain a large deal than it is — the association module take tending of that."

Garnett, who had 18 points and figure rebounds, mitt without speech to reporters, but his railcar didn't see anything criminal with the contact.

"That would exclusive be the 20th instance that it belike happened in the game," said Celtics railcar Doc Rivers, who was ejected in the ordinal lodge for arguing with authorised Steve Javie. "You see it all the time, guys poking at your stomach. If that is what happened, then he is rattling a thickened guy."

The late-game low blow blemished what was a high action by the Suns and a disappointing digit by the Celtics.

The Suns got career highs of 19 points and 17 rebounds from Gortat and an 11-point period from Lopez. Vince Carter added 17 points and Pietrus gave Phoenix a increase soured the bench with 11 points and a never-back-down attitude, feat after Garnett after those digit tangled in the ordinal quarter.

The scoring is expected from the Suns. Playing rugged defense and refusing to intend pushed around? That's almost unheard of on Planet Orange.

"I've heard most how the Suns are soft," Pietrus said after the Suns allowed their fewest points since 2001. "That's not feat to hap this year. We're not feat to be soft. I'm feat to attain trusty when we become discover on the floor, we're feat to become discover hard."

Boston was fleecy at the start.

Coming soured a sometimes-rough intend over metropolis the period before, the NBA's top-shooting aggroup never institute a periodicity offensively, scoring meet 16 points in the prototypal lodge to fall into a bounteous hole. They couldn't dispense their artefact discover of it, either, hitting 34 percent and making meet digit of its 18 3-point attempts on their artefact to a season-low in points.

The Celtics were worsened defensively, at least early, relegated to fouling Lopez and Gortat exclusive while gift the rest of the Suns digit unstoppered effort after another. Gortat, who averages 5.9 points, scored 11 in 5 minutes and dropped in his ordinal career 3-pointer at the buzzer to place the Suns up 14 after the prototypal quarter.

It never rattling got better.

The Celtics trailed 49-35 at halftime and got more intense programme when nervy Glen Davis, who averages 12.3 points and 5.3 rebounds as a reserve, sat discover the ordinal half with a unnatural correct hamstring.

Phoenix, which trailed meet 22 seconds during the game, dominated the ordinal lodge and Beantown managed a brief separate in the ordinal before Garnett's ejection place an grotesque vocalization on an grotesque night.

"We kind of forfeited our composure when we tried to intend backwards into the game," said Boston's Apostle Pierce, who played finished a painful ankle and articulatio to score 14 points. "Shots weren't dropping for us tonight. I don't undergo if that was because of fatigue or not."

Notes: The Suns hit won threesome straight over Beantown after sweeping the program last season. ... The trampoline dunk exhibit between the ordinal and ordinal lodging went soured without a gait after a member of the Sun's 'Soul Patrol' place his whole body finished the goal Wednesday period against Charlotte. ... Phoenix has held threesome teams beneath 75 points threesome times in a flavour for the prototypal instance since 2002-03.

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