Boston ? The trial of three men accused of stabbing Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce opened Tuesday with lawyers contending the suspects were wrongly identified in the nightclub fight two years ago.

William Ragland, Anthony Hurston, and Trevor Watson are charged with armed assault with intent to murder in the Sept. 25, 2000, attack at the Buzz Club in Boston’s theater district.

Pierce, a Kansas University product, was stabbed nearly a dozen times, leaving him with a collapsed lung, but he was able to start the basketball season that fall.

In opening statements, lawyers acknowledged that each man attended a private party at the club the night Pierce was stabbed. But they said none was involved in the fight.

“This was a barroom brawl. People were being scattered all over. There’s going to be confusion in that testimony,” said Thomas McKean, Ragland’s attorney.

Prosecutors claim it was Ragland who started the fight, confronting Pierce after Pierce struck up a conversation with his female cousin.

Assistant District Attorney John Pappas said Pierce did not know any of the men who attacked him and did not provoke the fight.

Ragland, Hurston and Watson have claimed that police targeted them because they are associates of the rap group Made Men.

Pierce is expected to testify about his memories of the fight.