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Big third quarter sparks Bucks past Knicks

Nov 3, 2008 - 4:03 AM By Larry Fleisher PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

NEW YORK (Ticker) -- It was Marathon Day in New York and in the third quarter Richard Jefferson and Michael Redd were the ones running the New York Knicks out of the building.

Jefferson and Redd combined for 18 points in the third Sunday night as the Milwaukee Bucks pulled away for a 94-86 victory over the Knicks.

Jefferson finished with '18 points and scored seven straight points as the Bucks opened the second half with a 12-0 run. Redd scored 16 points before leaving the game in the third with a sprained right ankle that he or the team does not believe to be a serious injury.

Redd suffered the injury late in the quarter after chasing down a loose ball. He landed awkwardly and then went to locker room for the rest of the contest.

The Bucks outscored New York, 26-16, in the decisive quarter and also saw the duo halt a mini-spurt midway through the period. After New York got within nine, Redd buried a three-pointer and Jefferson converted a layup

as Milwaukee took a 75-61 edge into the fourth.

"We were rolling," Redd said. "We were just playing basketball and feeding off each other. I wanted him to be more aggressive tonight and he was. We need that from him every night and that's what he brings."



"They can both shoot the ball," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "They can both drive the ball and they've had a nice rapport out there. They move the ball to each other and we don't have a lot of ball-holding going on right now, which is what we don't want and you can tell, the players are taking that to heart and attempting to move the ball to each other."

Jefferson is no stranger to beating the Knicks having done it many times for New Jersey while teaming with point guard Jason Kidd and now he's figuring out how to team up with Redd, who is averaging 21.2 points.

"We're learning each other," Jefferson said. "The more we run and I can put pressure to get the defense low then I could kick it back out to him for threes. That's going to be a great compliment.

Besides the performances of Redd and Jefferson, it was an all-around solid night for Milwaukee's starting lineup. All five starters reached double figures.

Andrew Bogut collected 13 points and 11 rebounds and Charlie Villanueva added 16 points. Ramon Sessions also

played effectively at point guard in place of Luke Ridnour (back spasms) as he finished with 18 points and handed out eight assist with seven rebounds.

"I like the balance," Bogut said. "The Milwaukee Bucks win when we have four or five guards in double figures."

For the second straight game, New York's attempts to effectively run new coach Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo system

sputtererd. After reaching 120 points in Wednesday's season opener over Miami, the Knicks shot just 37 percent

(30-for-81) and tied a franchise record by taking 36 three-pointers.

The Knicks only made 12 of their threes and shot under 40 percent in the last two games. They also had 16 turnovers, leading to 26 Milwaukee points.

"It's the spirit and the energy that we play with," D'Antoni said. "It's not that they don't want. I was just talking to them. We never attack until we get into a desperate situation. It's like we were on our heels the whole game and we're kind of waiting for something bad to happen to us. We're going to have to get over it."

Quentin Richardson led the Knicks with 28 points and Nate Robinson added 14 off the bench. But it was a struggle for leading scorer Jamal Crawford to get into the offense as he scored just one point and missed all six of his shots.

"Our energy was very low right from the start," Crawford said. "We battled back at the end of the first quarter, second quarter we were down four. The third quarter we just kind of fell apart. We got it back again but our energy has got to get better."

New York's first home loss of the D'Antoni era came on a day in which the winners of the New York Marathon were in the crowd. They got standing ovations when they were introduced but the crowd had little else to cheer about in a game that saw the Knicks lead for just 54 seconds.

That came with 6:22 left in the first half when Richardson sank a 22-footer but the Bucks roared back with a 12-3 run and took a seven-point edge before settling for a 49-45 advantage at halftime.