PHOENIX -- It's common to think of the Portland Trail Blazers as a young team, and for the most part they still are. But Sunday, a pair of old geezers with a combined age of 70 -- 36-year-old Marcus Camby and 34-year-old Andre Miller -- helped the Blazers to a 105-100 Game 1 upset of Phoenix, providing the first genuine drama of the 2010 playoffs.

Miller dominated offensively with 31 points and eight assists, exploding for 15 points in the deciding fourth quarter. The highlight was a 3-pointer with 4:28 remaining in which the career 20.9-percent shooter held his snapped wrist up for effect as if he were another Miller from L.A. -- one named Reggie. His rare triple gave Portland an 88-87 lead it would never relinquish, kicking off a 14-5 run over a three-minute span that all but put the game away.

"We talked about forcing the issue a little bit and not relying on jump shots," said Miller. "I was just trying to get the ball upcourt before they could set their defense and force some mismatches."

"He did a fantastic job," said Suns coach Alvin Gentry. "He is one of those guys that is very comfortable with the basketball in his hands as far as backing down and making plays. He's not a great outside shooter, but he controls the game with his isolation. We've got to do a better job of guarding him and we've got to do a better job coming down on him like we're supposed to. We had some breakdowns in that area."

Miller had to save the game one more time at the end, making the game-icing free throws with 3.7 seconds left after some loose foul shooting by the Blazers in the final 90 seconds gave the Suns a chance to tie the game late. But Steve Nash's long 3-point attempt with five seconds left hit the front of the rim and bounced away, and the Blazers had the win.

Portland made six trips to the line in the final 90 seconds, but only Miller produced two points -- the other Blazers missed six of eight to make the final seconds far more interesting than they should have been. When Jerryd Bayless bricked a pair with 12 seconds left and the Blazers leading 103-100, the Suns had a chance to tie. However, without a timeout the Suns couldn't get a great look. Nash dribbled across half court behind a double screen and fired for the tie from well beyond the line but couldn't send the game to OT.

Yet it was Camby who arguably had an even greater impact. Going against the league's top-ranked offense, the veteran shut down top scorer Amare Stoudemire and dominated the defensive glass. Camby scored only four points, but finished with 17 rebounds and three blocks while playing on a gimpy ankle that he rolled in practice on Saturday.

While Camby acted his age on a couple of late-game plays -- missing two free throws with 1:21 left and then a breakaway dunk with 50 seconds remaining that could have put the game away -- by then he'd already done his damage.

Camby's biggest play came just seconds earlier, when he stole the ball from Stoudemire on a left-block isolation with 1:29 left and the Suns down five. Just prior, he teamed with Miller on a similar play to draw a charge on Stoudemire, after Camby had forced the right-dominant Stoudemire left and into an awkward shot attempt that sent him crashing into a rotating Miller. For the night, Stoudemire had 18 points on 19 shots, committing four turnovers and handing out just two assists.

"He's a long guy and does an excellent job of blocking shots," said Gentry. "So Amare is going to have to step it up and find a way to score for us, and we've got to get him the ball in a good location."

"They did a phenomenal job defensively," said Stoudemire, "They clogged up the lane there a little bit so it was kind of difficult to get in our offense."

The upgraded defense continued a late-season trend for Portland. The Blazers went 16-3 down the stretch in games played by Camby, including Brandon Roy-less victories over the Lakers and Thunder. Only three of those 19 opponents hit the century mark, and while Phoenix just scraped over the line Sunday, the Blazers held the Suns to 41.8 percent shooting and eliminated their transition game (only four fast-break points).

As one Blazers spy pointedly told me before the game about the trade that brought Camby to Portland, "We thought he was a good player. He's a very good player."

For the Suns' part, they insisted that they can play better and perhaps they're right. Phoenix made only 11-of-32 from 3-point range after leading the league in the regular season at 41.2 percent. As if to drive home that point, Nash said, "We just didn't play well" four times in his postgame press conference.

However, one wonders if there's something deeper that favors Portland in this matchup. The Blazers won two of three in the regular season, including once without Roy, and now have stolen home-court advantage from the Suns in this playoff series. While it's still early, the game played out almost exactly like the team's three regular-season meetings. And as long as the Blazers' two old guys keep leading the way, they seem like the team best-poised to break the favorite's monopoly on the first round.

John Hollinger covers the NBA for ESPN Insider.

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