It was a rare visit to the Bradley Center on Saturday night for the well-traveled Milwaukee Bucks , and although there were some anxious moments late, they made the most of it with a 121-103 victory over the Indiana Pacers.
The Bucks held a 21-point lead in the third quarter and then held off the Pacers in the fourth quarter to improve to 10-15. The Bucks, who scored the game's last 19 points, have won four of their last five at home. Caught in the middle of a stretch in which they are playing six of seven on the road, it was the only home game for the Bucks in nearly a two-week period. With the Bucks riding a six-game road losing streak, and with three more road games coming up this week, every home game is critical.
Even so, the Bucks are taking an even-keel approach and are trying not to over-emphasize the home games.
"We actually want to get away from that," said coach Scott Skiles. "We want to try and approach every game the same. It's no secret that we haven't been as good on the road as we've been at home. We've had some trouble on the road lately. We're actually trying to focus on just all the things that we need to improve on and leave it at that."
The Bucks tied their season high point total for a half in building a 64-46 lead, only to see Indiana shoot 62% in the third quarter and trim Milwaukee's lead to 86-83 going into the fourth.
The Pacers took a 99-97 lead on two free throws by T.J. Ford with 5 minutes 33 seconds remaining, but the Bucks were back ahead, 102-101, after a three-pointer by Michael Redd with 4 minutes 52 seconds left. A jumper by Ford put the Pacers ahead by one, but another three-pointer by Redd and a three-point play by Andrew Bogut were part of a strong finish by the Bucks.
Bogut led the Bucks with 20 points and 20 rebounds. Redd scored 27 points, while forward Charlie Villanueva scored 24 of his 26 points in the first half.
Ford scored 27 to lead the Pacers, who have lost six straight.
The Bucks missed their first six shots and fell behind by six points early, but Villanueva came off the bench and scored nine points to lead the Bucks to a 33-24 lead after one quarter.
Villanueva came in after starter Luc Richard Mbah a Moute picked up two fouls just 2 minutes into the game.
Redd sank a pair of three-pointers and scored 11 points as the Bucks led after the first quarter for only the second time in the last 10 games.
The slow starts have brought into question how the Bucks players have been preparing for games.
"We go through our preparation with the guys in a pretty routine-type fashion," said Skiles. "We don't deviate a whole lot from our routine the way we go through it. But each guy is a little bit different. We're trying to individually talk to some guys about their road preparation and what they're doing. That kind of stuff. Just try to see if there's anything we can do to help guys to get ready to play."
The Bucks, who led by as many as 10 in the first quarter, got two baskets from former Pacer Austin Croshere and a pair of three-pointers by Villanueva early in the second quarter and extended their lead to 47-30. The Pacers closed to within 11, but another three-pointer by Villanueva helped the Bucks push their lead back up to 18 at halftime.
The Bucks shot 52.2% and limited Indiana to 41.5% shooting. With Bogut grabbing 10 rebounds, the Bucks held a 26-16 edge on the boards.
The Bucks extended their lead to 21 early in the third quarter, but the Pacers took off on a 16-4 run that trimmed the lead to 74-65.
But with the Bucks unable to come up with many stops defensively, Indiana had the lead down to three after three quarters.
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