Blazers' Last Shot Sinks Suns

Rasheed Wallace proved that he can get the job done for Portland whether he's starting or coming off the bench.

Wallace didn't start for the first time in 18 games Sunday night because coach Mike Dunleavy decided on Brian Grant as the power forward of choice. But Wallace was there at the end, sinking a baseline 15-footer with 1.3 seconds left that gave the Blazers a 92-90 victory over the Phoenix Suns.

"The thing we wanted to do was get the last shot, and I thought 'Sheed did a great job when he shot that shot," Scottie Pippen said. "It really gave us the opportunity that, if it was a miss, to go after a second shot."

"We just couldn't get it done in the last three or four minutes," said Gugliotta, who tied it at 90 on a layup with 16 seconds to play, giving the Blazers one last shot.

After a timeout, Detlef Schrempf got the in-bounds pass to Pippen, who passed to Wallace on the left side.

"It was nothing tremendous," said Wallace, who finished with 21 points. "It's just shooting, man. It doesn't matter if it's the end of the game or whatever."

Arvydas Sabonis had a season-high 18 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Pippen had 13 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as Portland improved the NBA's best road record to 9-3.

Gugliotta and Cliff Robinson scored 19 points each for Phoenix, which lost for only the second time in 10 home games.

There were six lead changes in the fourth quarter, the last when Wallace made two free throws with 36 seconds remaining for an 89-88 lead. He made another foul shot 10 seconds later.

The third quarter as equally wild, with nine lead changes before the Blazers, who never led in the first half, took a 71-68 lead on a driving layup by Steve Smith in the final two seconds.

Phoenix tied it 19 seconds into the fourth on a 3-pointer by Robinson, and the teams traded momentum until Wallace took over.

The loss was the second straight for the Suns, who had a seven-game winning streak snapped at Houston the night before.

"I think we played better tonight than we've played in games that we've won during the course of the year," Luc Longley said. "It's good to see, because they're really a barometer for us after last year."

Longley, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, had three straight baskets in a 55-second span midway through the second quarter, giving the Suns a 42-27 lead 4:52 into the period.

A dunk by Gugliotta gave Phoenix its biggest lead 47-31 with 3:39 remaining in the half. The Blazers went on a 7-2 run to come within nine at the half.

Portland opened the third quarter with a 10-0 run as Pippen scored six points and the Blazers took a 52-51 lead.

"I was encouraged by our second-half play," Dunleavy said. "We were the aggressive team that we needed to be. Our defense was solid, and we were very good at attacking the rim. We controlled the glass very well in the second half and executed down the stretch."

Notes