PLAY OF THE GAME: Indiana's Jeff Foster sank a buzzer-beating three-pointer from in front of the Bucks bench to cut Milwaukee's lead to 86-83 entering the fourth quarter. After a long review, the referees ruled that he did, in fact, shoot from beyond the arc.

STATISTICS SHEET: Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva scored 19 points in his first 15 minutes. Villanueva made seven of his first 10 shots, including a pair of three-pointers. The Bucks shot 58.5% in the first half after Villanueva entered the game.

OFF THE BENCH: With Charlie Bell activated after missing five games with an ankle injury, center Dan Gadzuric joined the injured Malik Allen on the inactive list.

UP NEXT

TEAMS: Bucks (10-15) vs. Miami Heat (12-10).

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Monday.

WHERE: American Airlines Arena, Miami.

BROADCASTS: TV - FSN. Radio - AM-620.

NOTEBOOK

RUN AND GUN: The Bucks found themselves playing some up-tempo Basketball during last week's Western trip and that style of play is just fine with coach Scott Skiles. As long as the Bucks play some defense, too.

"We believe that you can do both," said Skiles. "We believe that you can play at a (fast) pace. . . .We took 19 more field-goal attempts than (Phoenix) did. We believe that you can play at a pace where you push the ball, you look at the good early shot, you take it with confidence and still play defense. It's not that you have to do one or the other. You can do both.

"That's how we want to play. We want to push it up and run the wings. Can you win a game like that on occasion? You can win a game like that on occasion. But most nights, and especially if you want something to last, if you want to build around something that's going to last, you've got to be solid on the defensive end.

"We're better (defensively) but. . . yippee. We're better but we're not near where we need to be. Not everyone has bought into what we're trying to do and we've got to stay with it and we're going to stay with it. I know ultimately we'll become a good consistent defensive team."

Tom Enlund

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