His rebound of a missed free throw by Charlie Villanueva with 10.6 seconds left was another key. On the play, Jason Richardson fouled out of the game when he collided with Jefferson going for the rebound.

Jefferson made both free throws for the final points.

"The whole game was just boards and second chances," Brown said. "They got 22 points off second chances and they got 14 offensive rebounds. That was the whole key to the game."

The Bobcats had eight second-chance points, but had 34 points in the paint to the Bucks' 30.

Charlotte hit a season-high 10 3-pointers in 19 attempts, shooting 52.6 percent. That was the highest percentage from behind the arc that Milwaukee has allowed this season. Plus, the Bobcats shot 51.4 percent from the floor, while Milwaukee managed to shoot 48 percent.

And, still they lost as Milwaukee outrebounded them 41 to 27, including an offensive rebounding edge of 14 to 7.

"At the end of the day, it was just the fact that we couldn't rebound the ball defensively and that killed us," Brown said.

Michael Redd scored 25 points in his third game back since missing 14 games because of a sprained right ankle. Jefferson added 22, and Luke Ridnour had 14.

The Bucks, who never led by more than seven, made five free throws in the final minute.

Richardson scored 20 points, Emeka Okafor and Raymond Felton each had 19, and D.J. Augustin, the ninth overall pick in the 2008 draft, added 13 for the Bobcats. Charlotte won its previous two games.

"We played pretty good, but the rebound thing hurt us," Richardson said.

Andrew Bogut said that the Bucks were fortunate to get the win.

"It's good to get a win, but looking back, we didn't play pretty well," Bogut said. "You can't take a lot of positives out of it when they shoot 52 percent from the field. We're very, very lucky to get a win."

Bogut had 10 points and 10 rebounds and showed no ill effects from the migraine headache he suffered after taking an inadvertent blow to the head during the third quarter of Wednesday night's game.

Ridnour's 3-pointer gave the Bucks a 92-87 lead with 4:20 left to play, but Felton answered with a layup to pull the Bobcats back within two with 3:57 left.

Jefferson then made two free throws for the Bucks just before Okafor tipped in a miss to make it 94-91 at the 1:31 mark.

Redd missed from in close, but the Bucks got a break when Richardson was called for a charge with 21.5 seconds left when he knocked over Andrew Bogut on a drive.

Ridnour sank both free throws to make it 98-94, but Okafor took a pass from Augustin and scored to pull the Bobcats to 98-96 with 12.1 seconds left.

Gerald Wallace had to be restrained by his Bobcats teammates after Ridnour fouled him on a baseline drive late in the second quarter. Augustin stepped between Wallace and Ridnour, who glared at each other. Ridnour made the technical called on Wallace, who then sank one of two free throws.

Notes: Bucks G Charlie Bell was inactive for the second consecutive game because of a sore right ankle. ... The University of Arizona will dedicate the Richard Jefferson Gymnasium on Dec. 8. Jefferson, who led the Wildcats to the 2001 national championship game, made the lead gift of $3.5 million in the Campaign Arizona Phase II athletic building plan.