Bucks tip Raptors despite Bosh's career-high 44 points

By Rick Braun, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday January 21, 2010 12:50AM

MILWAUKEE (NBA.com exclusive) -- Andrew Bogut kept the Milwaukee Bucks close in the opening minutes Wednesday night but found himself in a most unwelcome place for the final 4 minutes, 11 seconds.

Nonetheless, his teammates came through in a most impressive fashion as the Bucks claimed a 113-107 victory over the Toronto Raptors at the Bradley Center.

Bogut posted 27 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots before fouling out with 4:11 left and the Bucks holding a 101-96 lead.

The Bucks could have folded at that point. Toronto's Chris Bosh was on his way to a career-high 44 points, and the Bucks had little else going offensively other than Bogut's 11-for-14 performance.

Bogut had scored Milwaukee's last eight points before picking up his final foul on an offensive foul away from the ball.

Hedo Turkoglu drained a 3-pointer to pull the Raptors within 101-99, and Toronto (21-22) appeared primed to make a strong stretch run.

Instead, the Bucks crashed the offensive boards and Ersan Ilyasova, Carlos Delfino and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute provided enough offense down the stretch as Milwaukee (17-23) won in its first game at home after a 1-5 road trip out west.

Delfino scored the first big basket on a drive to the hoop that made it 103-99.

After a 3-point play by Bosh pulled Toronto within a point, Mbah a Moute was in perfect position for a tip in with 2:15 left.

Finally, Ilyasova tallied a 3-point play off a tip-in, and Milwaukee led 108-102 with 1:28 left. A layup by Charlie Bell off an inbound pass under the basket with 51.1 seconds left made it 110-102 and put the Raptors away.

"We had gone to Bogues there and he was very productive during that stretch," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "Then he picked up his sixth on an off-the-ball play barely running into a guy. But we were able to make big plays."

Said Bogut: "It's tough to swallow when you get fouled out that way, but we made a run once I went out and we held our lead and got the win. It was huge for us."

Delfino added 22 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his second strong game against the team that traded him to Milwaukee last summer. Delfino had 14 points and eight rebounds in a 117-95 Milwaukee victory over the Raptors back on Dec. 9.

The two teams meet again on Friday, giving Delfino another shot at his old team.

The victory also marked the Milwaukee debut of Jerry Stackhouse, who was signed on Tuesday. Stackhouse made just 1 of 5 shots, but when his 3-pointer gave Milwaukee an 89-87 lead with 9:05 left, the Bucks would never trail again.

"That's going to look good in the paper tomorrow," Stackhouse joked.

In 17 minutes, Stackhouse also chipped in five rebounds (four offensive) and four assists.

"I feel good," Stackhouse said. "I've got my ice bags going, so hopefully that will combat any ills. And I've got my linament."

The Bucks got off to a slow start. Bogut scored their first eight points and was 4-for-5. The rest of his teammates were 0-for-9.

"They were letting Bogues catch it where he wanted early and he was able to go 4-for-5," Skiles said. "As soon as they started trying to get around in front of him and make it more difficult, we had a hard time getting it in there.

"But Carlos kept us hanging with his shot-making, and Stack came in and had two or three assists right away. So we started to loosen up a little bit where we could keep it reasonable so we could come out in the second half and get something going."

Bogut had a consistent night with eight points in the first quarter, four in the second, seven in the third and eight in the fourth.

"I got a lot of easy looks," Bogut said. "Defensively, [Andrea] Bargnani is not a five [center]. He's such a great shooter that they play him at the five to stretch the floor for Bosh, but he's a little light physically so that's why I tried to go at him."

The Bucks trailed 56-49 at the half and a 3-pointer by Delfino started a 7-0 run that tied the game at 61. From there the Raptors never led by more than three despite Bosh having his huge night. The Toronto forward also chipped in 12 rebounds.

But other than Bosh's 15-for-26 shooting, the rest of the Raptors went 23-for-58 (39.7percent).

"Chris was outstanding," Raptors coach Jay Triano said. "We tried to go to him as much as we could and give him the basketball. We scored enough points to win the game, but we didn't secure [enough] possessions. It's unfortunate."

Milwaukee finished with 25 assists to just seven turnovers, a statistic that will please any coach.

"Early in the game we couldn't make a shot," Skiles said. "If you would have told me early in the game that we were going to get 25 assists I would have taken that for sure.

"We did a nice job, as we always do, moving the ball and looking for each other and sharing the ball. It was just a matter of could we eventually knock down enough shots, and we did. We got it going a little bit."

The loss was the Raptors' second in two nights on the road. They'll host the Bucks on Friday.

• Raptors: Evans, O'Bryant
• Bucks: Alexander, Gadzuric, Redd

• Raptors: --
• Bucks: --

• Lead Changes: 9
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Bradley Center, Milwaukee, WI
• Officials: #9 Derrick Stafford, #30 Tony Brown, #73 Ed Malloy
• Attendance: 12724
• Duration: 2:18