MILWAUKEE, March 22 (AP) -- Mo Williams scored 27 points and the Milwaukee Bucks snapped a six-game losing streak with a 108-98 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night.
LeBron James scored 29, Zydrunas Ilgauskas added 20 and Wally Szczerbiak 14 as Cleveland failed in its first attempt at going 11 games over .500 this season.
Michael Redd, who finished with 20 points, and Williams sparked a stretch that bridged the third and fourth quarters and gave Milwaukee a 90-76 lead with 8:24 left to play. Williams had seven points and a jumper that gave the Bucks a 14-point cushion. Redd opened the fourth with three straight jumpers.
Damon Jones made two free throws to pull Cleveland to 97-91 with 1:42 to go, but Desmond Mason sank a 14-footer to put Milwaukee ahead by eight. James hit a 3-pointer with 56 seconds to play that cut the lead to five, the closest the Cavs got before Redd sank two free throws and Williams made two to push the lead back to 107-98 with 25 seconds left.
While Cleveland has won nine straight at home, they have lost seven of the last eight on the road, including five straight.
Milwaukee opened the game with a 14-4 run. On those seven field goals Mo Williams assisted on five and scored one.
The Bucks closed the first quarter with a 9-2 run over the final 2:46. They closed the quarter with a 63.6 shooting percentage (14-22) and had assists on 12 of their 14 field goals. Mo Williams had six assists in the quarter.
Milwaukee led 29-14 after one quarter. Their 14 points given up is a season low for a Bucks opponent in the first frame.
Cleveland used an 11-2 run to trim a 17-point Bucks lead (35-18, 10:10) in the second quarter to eight (37-29) at 7:04. The Cavs had a 17-6 run over the final 5:16 of the second quarter to even the game at 46 going into the half.
The Bucks outscored the Cavaliers 9-2 over the last 2:34 of the third quarter to lead 78-67 entering the fourth quarter. Mo Williams had 12 points and five assists in the quarter.
Charlie Bell left the game with a sprained right knee in the fourth quarter and did not return.
Bell hit 4-6 three-pointers and is shooting 15-27 (56.0 percent) from beyond the arc over his last four games.
Mo Williams collected his sixth double-double of the season with 29 points and 13 assists. It’s his second consecutive double-dip and he’s averaging 27.5 points and 12.0 assists in those two.
LeBron James recorded 29 points and 11 rebounds – his 30th double-double of the season and the 104th of his career.
The Cavs have given up 100 points or more in their last six road games. They’re 1-5 over that span.
Andrew Bogut notched his 31st double-double of the season with 16 points and 15 boards - his eighth double-double in his last 13 tilts.
Cleveland shot 37.4 percent. The Bucks are now 13-6 when their foes shoot 44.9 percent or less.
Milwaukee’s win over Cleveland gave them their first season series victory against the Cavs since a 4-0 sweep in the 2002-03 season.
The Bucks improved to 5-1 at home against the Central Division with their victory over the Cavs.
Milwaukee’s record when scoring 100+ is now 16-11 with their 108-98 win over Cleveland.
Cleveland has lost their last five games on the road (Chicago, New Jersey, Washington, Orlando and Milwaukee).
Click "play" on the video player to the right to watch exclusive locker room video from Saturday's win over Cleveland. Or use the links below to watch and listen to archived video and audio.
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For exclusive locker room video from tonight's game, check out the AT&T Multimedia Vault!
Game highlights
Larry Krystkowiak
(On the energy tonight’s game…)
“It was pretty impressive and I thought we moved the ball real well, too. I’m not certain but I think we had 10 or 11 first quarter assists. There were a couple of things that we talked about in the office before the game where we moved the basketball real well and played real hard on defense. Unfortunately, we had that blip in the second quarter but there was a correlation with us forcing bad shots. It got a little bit easy and we had a double-digit lead and then we started getting away from what got us that lead. I thought we recaptured it and moved the ball again real well in the second half.”
(On Mo Williams’ performance…)
“Certainly he did a great job. He was finding match-ups for us and getting the ball to people when they were in positions. He did a good job in pick-and-roll. We went through two segments in the game where we ran a lot of pick-and-roll and he made the right decision virtually every time. ”
(On the defensive effort tonight...)
“We came out with a lot more energy. We scrambled, we rotated, we trapped LeBron (James) every chance that we got and made him see some numbers in front of him. For the most part, they were taking contested shots. We had three or four in the first half where we didn’t have the energy to complete a rotation and they hit a couple and they missed a couple. I thought overall that the energy and the commitment to trying to get some stops was at a level that it hasn’t been at in a while.”
Mo Williams
(On being well-rested for tonight’s game…)
“We just played, most definitely. We had a couple of days off and a light Wednesday, off Thursday, then did a little something just to get a little bit sweaty on Friday and it showed tonight.”
(On holding off a late push by Cleveland…)
“We knocked down our free throws and that was the good thing about it. We want to keep that going. Get to the line and knock down the free throws at the end, that’s how you seal games.”
Michael Redd
(On winning tonight…)
“It was huge for us. It felt good to win again. We haven’t won in a while so it was a good win for us.”
(On winning the season series against Cleveland…)
“I never questioned our effort. Our team is our team and I believe in my guys. Sometimes it works out for us and sometimes it doesn’t. Tonight was great. We’ve played well against Cleveland all year long. We just had their number this year.”
Full AP recap
Photo gallery
Bucks injury report
Locker room: Mo Williams & Michael Redd
Game highlights
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