By Joe Gilmartin
Posted: Dec. 27, 2001

It is truly written that in the land of the blind a one-eyed team is king. And Thursday night two one-eyed teams waged a magnificent struggle that went down to the very last second before the Suns emerged as slightly more regal than the equally sight disadvantaged Celtics.

Granted, if you just went by the numbers, this was more like a semi-dreadful mishmash than a magnificent struggle, what with one team shooting only 36.4 percent from the field (that would be the Suns), and the other an even “only-er” 34.1 percent, and combining to spray 110 misses around America West Arena.

But if you were there you know this was a highly entertaining, fiercely fought battle that featured, among other things, a spectacular mano-a-mano duel between the two best small forwards on the planet.

That would be Paul Pierce of the Celtics (No. 1) and Shawn Marion of the Suns (No. 1-A). Marion had a season-high 30 points, 10 rebounds and three steals, and capped off his night’s work with a three-pointer that gave the Suns an 80-79 lead with 1:19 to play. Oh, and he basically hounded Pierce into a 9-for-24 night from the field.

And all Pierce did was pour in 33 points and seven rebounds. And for one agonizing heartbeat it looked like that would be 36 and seven as his three-point bid from the corner for the win with less than half a tick on the clock just rimmed out.

The big difference in the game (well actually in an 84-82 game there is no BIG difference) was that Marion had a little more help than Pierce, with the decisive bit of assistance coming from what on this night was the unlikeliest source.

That would be Stephon Marbury, who through 39 minutes and 58 seconds suffered what had to be one of the least productive efforts of his career. There he was with the game clock at :02 with only six points and three assists, and 1-for-11 from the field (and that “1” being an uncontested lay-up at the end of the first half). But with the score tied at 82, there he was calmly draining a wide open 22-footer.

But most of Marion’s help came from Penny Hardaway, who had 20 points, including 10 huge ones in the fourth quarter, 12 rebounds, including two huge ones in the fourth quarter, five assists, three steals and two blocked shots, and Tom Gugliotta.

Googs, working his way back into top playing shape after his latest injury, hit some big shots, and had seven rebounds and four blocked shots. The Suns' forward was largely responsible for keeping Antoine Walker, Boston’s other siege gun, under control much of the night also, and shutting him down completely in the fourth period.

Harrowing as it was, surviving Pierce’s last second shot wasn’t the Suns’ only flirtation with disaster by any means. They also had to survive a stretch in the first half when they were outscored 17-0 while going 0-for-12 from the field and turning the ball over three times.

But while the offense looked at times like it was put together by a committee (on a vote of 3-2 with four abstentions yet), the defense was there wire to wire. Well, almost. Ironically, one of their few egregious defensive lapses came on Boston’s final possession, when they left a sideline passing lane open for a wide open look by Pierce. This despite the fact coach Scott Skiles had warned them during a timeout this was the ONE thing they didn’t was to do.

However, on the possession before that, with the score tied, the Celtics were never able to get the ball to Pierce at all, and had to settle for a short jumper by Kenny Anderson with 24 seconds left. Anderson missed. And Hardaway, whose failure to block out allowed the Celts to tie the score on a tip in at the buzzer and force an overtime in a loss in Boston, grabbed the rebound to set up the winning shot.