Mavs Lose To Bucks

MILWAUKEE — A year ago, when the upstart Milwaukee Bucks were taking the NBA by storm, it was their suffocating defense that helped them go from the league’s worst team to a playoff-caliber squad.

That defensive effort has been absent for much of this season, but Milwaukee found it Friday, when it held on down the stretch for a 96-95 victory over the Dallas Mavericks at the Bradley Center.

“We’re a defensive team,” shooting guard Khris Middleton said. “We have the length, the size and the athleticism to defend every team in this league. Once we start doing that, we’ll give ourselves a great chance to win.”

Offensively, Middleton led Milwaukee with 27 points and put the go-ahead points on the board with a driving layup with 9.1 seconds left on the clock.

The ball wound up in his hands thanks to a heads-up defensive effort by forward John Henson, who deflected Dallas center Dirk Nowitzki’s pass into the lane. The ball wound up in the hands of Middleton, who took it end-to-end for a driving layup.

“Dirk kind of threw a low pass and fortunately, I was there to deflect it,” Henson said. “Khris made a great play at the end.”

The late defensive stand and Middleton’s game-winner came after Milwaukee watched a 16-point halftime lead disappear.

The Bucks had held Dallas to 31 percent shooting in the

first half but the Mavericks came out of the locker room and knocked down 14 of 21 shots in the third to draw within four.

Shooting guard O.J. Mayo put Milwaukee up six on a 3-pointer at the 3:55 mark of the fourth, but Mavericks guard Raymond Felton hit back-to-back 3-pointers that tied the game at 93 with 2:50 to play.

Nowitzki, who scored 15 of his team-leading 20 in the second half, put Dallas ahead 95-94 with 38 seconds left. Dallas got that ball back when the the Bucks were whistled for an offensive foul, but on the ensuing play, Henson picked off Nowitzki to set up Middleton’s final shot.

“I saw Zaza (Pachulia) flash in there and I thought I could get it to him in the lane and he could swing it maybe for a good shot on the weak side,” Nowitzki said. “Henson’s long and he got his arm on it. It was a bad turnover. We got a good luck for the win in my view. I’ll take that all day. It just didn’t go.”

Dallas had one last shot to win it but point guard Deron Williams’ jumper at the buzzer missed, allowing the Bucks to breathe a sigh of relief.

“We put ourselves in a good position to win the game,” Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty said. “Our defense was very good from the beginning of the game … Our team defense was really, really good tonight.”

Dallas attempted 44 3-pointers, the most of any team in the league this season, but made just 14 of them and went 35 for 84 from the field overall while turning the ball over 16 times.

Milwaukee scored 20 points off those turnovers and hit 46.3 percent of its shots for the night.

Henson finished with 16 points off the bench, hitting 8 of 9 shots, while Mayo added 11 including three 3-pointers.

Point guard Michael-Carter Williams finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists while forward Jabari Parker chipped in with 10 points for the Bucks, who snapped a two-game losing streak and beat Dallas for the first time in six games.

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