• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Redd scores 31 but Mason delivers winner as Bucks stop Grizzlies

Nov 15, 2007 - 4:35 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Desmond Mason provided the big shot and Mo Williams provided the defensive stop as the Milwaukee Bucks held on for a 102-99 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night.

Before Mason and Williams came up big, Michael Redd kept the Bucks in the game, knocking down five consecutive shots from the arc and scoring 21 of his season-high 31 points in the second half as the Bucks snapped a two-game losing streak.

Andrew Bogut added a season-high 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Williams had 10 and 12 assists for the Bucks, who overcame a cold-shooting first half to improve to 3-0 at home.

"Relief, man," Redd said of the second-half turnaround. "We were just being a little more aggressive. Coach just let us go and the shots were falling, definitely. We needed that. We needed that for our confidence."

Behind the sharpshooting of Redd, Milwaukee led most of the second half, but the real relief did not arrive until the final buzzer. The Grizzlies pulled within 96-95 with 2 1/2 minutes left, sparked by a three-point play and a drive from the top of the key by Mike Miller. Rudy Gay drained a wide-open 3-pointer with 34 seconds left to tie the game at 98-98.

Milwaukee then set up a play for Mason, who came off a screen, took a feed from Williams and knocked down a 15-foot jumper from the left wing with 13 seconds left.

"If I'm open and they pass to me, I'll make a play," Mason said. "One dribble, pull-up - I shoot tons of those in practice. It was one of those things the last couple years where teams played off me a lot, and he did the same thing on that ball. I just pulled up and I was confident."

After a timeout, Memphis point guard Kyle Lowry drove the lane, but Williams reached in and stripped the second-year pro, got fouled and nailed two free throws which should have iced it.

But on the ensuing possession, Miller got fouled on a drive, made the first free throw and missed the second. Pau Gasol tracked down the rebound and launched a 3-pointer from the right corner that bounced off the front rim.

"I just had to make a quick decision to try and tie the game up," Gasol said. "I might have rushed it a little bit. I didn't know exactly how much time is left. I know it was 2.5 (seconds) when the ball bounced out. It wasn't really that contested, so I just caught it, turned around, and shot it."

Redd scored 13 points in the third quarter and made all three shots from the arc. His long-range bomb with 4:45 left provided a 63-61 lead and his 3-pointer from the left corner with 26 ticks remaining provided a 78-71 edge.

"We had 52 shots in the first half and we were shooting in the 30 percentile again, but we were able to bring a lead into the locker room," Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "It wasn't like they were bad shots. We missed a number of open shots. At some point, we were going to kind of come out of that funk."

Redd wasn't done from the outside, knocking down a 3-pointer from the left wing and a step-back jumper off the glass from just about the same spot inside the arc that provided an 87-78 edge with 9:10 left.

Milwaukee led by as many as eight points in the first quarter and took a 22-18 lead into the second before Charlie Villanueva drained consecutive 3-pointers to open the second period.

Despite poor shooting, Milwaukee led by as many as 10 points in the second before taking a 47-41 edge into intermission after consecutive baskets in the final minute by Redd.

The Bucks shot a season-low 35 percent (18-of-52) for the half but committed just four turnovers and collected 13 offensive rebounds, including five from rookie Yi Jianlian and four from Redd. Jianlian and Bogut combined for 14 of the team's 19 first-quarter boards.

Gasol had 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting to lead Memphis in the first half. The Grizzlies opened the second half on a 16-6 run and took a short-lived, 57-53, lead on a jumper by Gay before Redd started dialing in from long range.

Gay finished with a team-best 26 points.

"Rudy Gay was a definite force out there, and carried us on his shoulders there offensively," Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni said. "We just couldn't make the big plays in the end."