Aussie Bogut gets career best in win
Australian Andrew Bogut had a career-high 21 points and dominated in the final quarter, helping the Milwaukee Bucks to a 111-106 NBA victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
The Bucks also got good returns from TJ Ford (24 points) and Michael Redd (23), with their victory overshadowing a sensational 52-point haul from Cavaliers star LeBron James.
James was 19-for-29 from the floor, including 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range.
"I don't want to score 50 again for the rest of my career because I am now 0-2 when I score 50," joked James.
"I don't look at it as me playing well. It's the fact that we didn't get a win and that's all I care for."
The Bucks couldn't stop James, but did a great job on his teammates.
"We didn't want him to go off for 50, but he shot the ball so well coming out that it's was kind of hard to stop him," said Bogut, whose career-high haul of 21 points included seven down the stretch as the Bucks handed Cleveland its seventh consecutive loss in Milwaukee.
"Other guys didn't get involved in the second half and that keyed us."
The Bucks led 86-82 going into the fourth and Mo Williams' three-pointer gave them a 91-84 lead early in the fourth. But Milwaukee couldn't pull away.
James' layup tied it at 98 with 5:07 to play, but Bogut, the No.1 pick in the 2005 draft, took over down the stretch.
Bogut dunked over James, and after Ford made a layup, the Australian added another layup and Milwaukee led 104-99 with 2:40 left.
Then Ford came off a screen set by Bogut to hit a jumper and a 106-101 lead with less than a minute left. Bogut scored off a rebound to push the lead to 108-103 with 32.9 seconds left.
"I'm just trying to play hard," Bogut said. "I'm just proving a point to myself that I can play in this league."
In other action, Joe Johnson scored 22 points and Zaza Pachulia added 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the struggling Atlanta Hawks to a surprise 94-84 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.
The Hawks entered the game with the worst record in the NBA with just two wins and would have expected little success against the Spurs, who topped the Western Conference standings with a 16-3 record on the back of a six-game winning streak.
But the Hawks got double-double performances from three players, including a 13 point and 11 rebound effort from Josh Childress and 11 points and 11 boards and five assists from Al Harrington to move to 3-16 for the season.
In Minneapolis, Kevin Garnett hit for a season high 30 points and Wally Szczerbiak added 25 as the surging Minnesota Timberwolves rolled past the Los Angeles Lakers 95-82 for their fifth straight win.
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