PHOENIX, Feb. 14 (Ticker) -- Minus their two best post players in the second half, the Utah Jazz did a remarkable job staying with Amare Stoudemire and the Phoenix Suns. They just didn't have enough to pull off an improbable victory.

Taking advantage of the absence of Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko, Stoudemire scored 29 of his 42 points after the break to lead the Suns to a 136-128 victory over the Jazz.

It was the highest-scoring game in the NBA this season.

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Quentin Richardson scored 22 points and Steve Nash added 19 and 18 assists for the Suns, who set a season high in points en route to beating the Jazz for the third time in four meetings this season. Phoenix had not won a season series from Utah since 1992-93.

The Suns' output was one shy of the league season high by Dallas vs. Washington on January 18.

"You can probably draw from this game that we are a pretty good offensive team," Suns coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I don't know about the other side of the court, but offensively we are pretty good. We get lulled to sleep thinking we can score every time and don't think it is important to play defense some times."

Utah, which also had a season high, held a 50-43 lead with 4:18 remaining in the second quarter when Kirilenko twisted an ankle landing on Nash's foot and limped to the locker room. Boozer suffered a sprained right fore foot in the final minute of the half, which ended with the Jazz ahead, 62-58.

"(The Jazz) had a bad break with Kirilenko and Boozer, but you should smell blood," D'Antoni said. "With them out, they had no answer for Amare."

Neither player returned, and Stoudemire found the going easier inside, scoring 15 of the Suns' 40 points in the third quarter to help them take a 98-85 lead into the final period.

"It wouldn't have mattered if they were in or out, I was going to attack either way," Stoudemire said. "I took it upon myself to step it up in the second half. We needed that push."

During a 22-6 run bridging the middle two periods, Stoudemire scored 12 points on a variety of layups and free throws.

"We had some guys that weren't even interested in playing tonight," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We had guys in the third quarter that didn't even know they were supposed to play basketball. They thought they were being redshirted and sitting on the bench and getting paid.

"The other guys were sitting with a tuxedo on, not ready to play. They need to be ready to play basketball. That is what they get paid for."

Utah got within 120-117 on a pair of free throws by Raja Bell with 2:56 remaining. But Nash countered with a 3-pointer 18 seconds later, and the Jazz got no closer than four points thereafter.

Bell scored 22 points and reserve Howard Eisley had season highs of 20 and 11 assists for the Jazz, who shot 55 percent (49-of-89) but allowed the Suns to do likewise (44-of-80).

Phoenix made 15-of-29 3-pointers, with Richardson sinking 7-of-14, while Utah sank just 4-of-11.

"We have a lot of guys who can shoot the ball," Richardson said. "With Amare getting going like that, it opened it up big for us."