"They played aggressively and physically for 48 minutes," Popovich said after the Bucks held on to beat the Spurs 100-98 at the AT&T Center. "We played for 24 minutes."

Doomed by an unfocused start - not to mention a predictable shooting display from Michael Redd, an unexpected one from Luke Ridnour and a one-man slam-dunk show by Andrew Bogut - the Spurs saw their five-game winning streak end against a surprising but consistent nemesis.

Redd scored 25 points, Ridnour had a season-high 21 and Bogut added 20 points to go with 14 rebounds.

Combined with a November victory, Milwaukee improved to 12-8 against the Spurs in the past 10 seasons. No other team has a winning record against the Spurs in that span - a bizarre fact, considering the Spurs own twice as many NBA titles during that stretch (four) as the Bucks own playoff trips (two).

"Probably, we got too comfortable after winning five games in a row," Manu Ginobili said. "We didn't start the game as aggressive as we should have."

Down 100-95 with 16.4 seconds to go, and despite trailing for all but 67 seconds of the second half, the Spurs (20-11) had a chance to reverse the curse.

Evoking memories of his Christmas Day game-winner in Phoenix, Roger Mason Jr. buried a 3-pointer to bring the Spurs within two with 9.3 seconds left.

On the ensuing inbounds play, the Spurs forced a 5-second violation, affording them a last chance to take a lead or force a tie. The ball swung to Tim Duncan, who up-faked past Bogut and drove to the basket, but could not finish a layup over a swarm of hands.

It was a somewhat fitting ending for Duncan, who finished with a team-leading 22 points but made only 7 of 20 shots.

"I'll take that 10 times out of 10," Mason said. "Tim got a good look and it didn't drop. But we lost the game before that."

Early on, the Spurs made their own misfortune.

The Bucks (15-17) shot 68.5 percent in the first quarter, mostly because it's difficult for any NBA team to miss dunks and layups. Milwaukee outscored the Spurs 16-6 in the paint in the opening frame, racing out to a lead that got as high as 10 points.

"A lot of missed assignments," is how Popovich described the first half. "Then, to get back in the game, we had to double-team and do some things. You might give up a layup now and then when you're blitzing."

If the Spurs needed to recall the mystic hold Milwaukee has over them, they got two reminders in the third quarter.

Their defense finally in attack mode, the Spurs forced the Bucks to use about 20 seconds of the shot clock before Ridnour floated a seemingly ill-fated pass toward Bogut.

The ball appeared destined to become a Duncan steal, but instead nipped just enough iron to skip to Bogut underneath for one of his five dunks.

On the Bucks' next possession, the Spurs were on the verge of forcing another shot-clock violation when Richard Jefferson won a loose-ball scrum and fed Charlie Bell for a buzzer-beating reverse layup.

Behind as many as 11 in the third, the Spurs kept plugging. When Mason dunked off a Ridnour turnover with 6:33 left in the game, giving his team an 88-84 lead and pushing the home crowd toward delirium, it appeared the Spurs had conquered their Milwaukee demons.

Unrelenting, the Bucks took a five-point lead into the waning moments. But when Jefferson couldn't get the ball in bounds with 9 seconds left, the Spurs had visions of a third-straight dramatic victory.

It was not to be. Their winning streak unceremoniously brought to an end, the Spurs had no curse to blame. Only themselves.

"At the end of the day," Ginobili said, "they played better than us."