BOX SCORE
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Two guards teamed up to give Milwaukee its second win in two days.
Brandon Jennings and Earl Boykins each
scored 18 points to lead the Bucks to a 110-90 victory over the
Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night.
"At this point, we're running out of
time," Boykins said. "It's time to win, no matter who the opponent is.
If you can get a win, it's a good win. So, we're able to get the
back-to-back wins. It's huge for us at this point of the season."
Boykins had all of his points in the
first half, then Jennings scored 14 in the third quarter as Milwaukee
enjoyed its second blowout in two days, thanks to 55.1 percent shooting.
The Bucks, who won 95-76 on Tuesday at
Washington, have won back-to-back games for the first time since Jan.
28-29. Boykins and Jennings combined to shoot 15 of 19 from the field.
"They were in the paint," Milwaukee
coach Scott Skiles said. "One of our points of emphasis in the game was
to break them down off the dribble, get down in the paint and then make
good decisions and save for four or five minutes, we did."
Samardo Samuels scored 11 of his 15
points in the first quarter for Cleveland, which lost for the fifth time
in six games. The Cavaliers, 4-28 on the road, also 13 points and seven
assists from Daniel Gibson.
Baron Davis, Cleveland's leading scorer
since being traded to the Cavaliers, missed the game due to the death of
his grandmother.
Afterward, the Cavaliers met for about 15-20 minutes before opening the locker room to reporters.
"Pretty much all the coaches talked and
I had a couple of players talk, and that was the biggest thing,
consistency and trust," Cleveland coach Byron Scott said. "I don't think
the guys truly trust each other out there, for whatever reason. They've
been together 60-plus games and obviously the consistency is something
we've been lacking for a while."
Samuels, who also grabbed five rebounds, agreed.
"We went over things, stuff we need to
work on," Samuels said. "Stuff that will help this team and try to get
everybody on the same page. That was what the conversation was about."
After shooting 60.5 percent in the
first half for a 62-49 lead at the break, Milwaukee extended its lead by
opening the third quarter with a 14-4 run.
Jennings contributed 10 points during
the stretch, and his second 3-pointer of the run gave his team a 76-53
lead with 6:22 left.
"These are teams we should beat, so you can't really get too hyped about it or anything like that," Jennings said.
Milwaukee took control by shooting 70
percent (14 of 20) and scoring 39 points in the second quarter. Boykins
made all six of his shots in the period, and he started and capped a
17-2 run by the Bucks.
His jump shot gave Milwaukee a 38-35
lead with 6:54 remaining and his layup extended the advantage to 53-37
with 3:26 to play.
"I just took the shots that were
there," Boykins said. "The thing was, once I made a couple, I really
just focused on taking good shots."
A 3-pointer by John Salmons gave Milwaukee a 58-41 lead, its biggest of the half, with 2:11 left.
"We stopped playing," Scott said. "We
stopped playing on the defensive end, stopped playing offensively
together as a team and they got up and started pressuring us a little
more. And we just seemed to lose our minds and just play individual
basketball."
NOTES: Jon Brockman tied his career
high with 11 points. ... Cleveland won the opening tip, but Anthony
Parker was called for an 8-second violation after slight pressure from
Salmons. ... The Bucks' 39 second-quarter points and 62 first-half
points were both two points shy of equaling season highs. ...
Milwaukee's Corey Maggette missed his second game in a row with a sore
right knee and Ersan Ilyasova has not played in the last six games due
to a concussion. ... Cleveland's Luke Harangody missed his second
consecutive game with a right hip pointer.
