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Bucks halt a four-game slide with win over Raptors

Feb 9, 2011 - 4:58 AM Milwaukee, WI (Sports Network) - John Salmons scored 17 points and grabbed six rebounds while Corey Maggette supplied 16 points and nine boards in Milwaukee's 92-74 win over Toronto at the Bradley Center.

Andrew Bogut provided 14 points, five caroms and five blocked shots and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute chipped in with 10 points and a game-best 14 rebounds for the Bucks, who halted a four-game slide.

"If we're going to make a push for the playoffs, we have to start now," said Salmons. "We have to take care of these home games and win the games we're supposed to. It's always one game at time but there is a sense of urgency. We can't wait any longer. Hopefully, we can get on a roll and win some games."

Andrea Bargnani notched a game-high 23 points while DeMar DeRozan contributed 18 points and seven boards for the Raptors, who temporarily interrupted a 13- game losing streak in their last game Friday versus Minnesota.

Milwaukee moved out to a 24-17 lead after the first quarter as the Raptors made only 8-of-25 shots from the floor in the opening 12 minutes.

Toronto shaved an eight-point deficit to two on a handful of occasions during the latter half of the second quarter and got the game even at 38 on a Sonny Weems dunk with just under a minute to go.

Bogut's dunk with 28.8 ticks remaining gave the hosts the lead at the break.

Milwaukee opened the second half with an 11-2 run to forge a 51-40 edge with 8:42 to go in the third quarter.

The difference grew to as many as 12 before the Raptors trimmed their deficit to 66-58 heading into the final stanza.

Salmons and Mbah a Moute combined to score nine during a 16-4 burst to open the fourth quarter that extended the hosts advantage to 82-62 just past the midway point of the period.

Toronto never got closer than 17 the rest of the way and fell to 5-23 on the road this season.

"We just didn't have enough of our starters play well," Toronto head coach Jay Triano said about the loss. "We can't afford to have two or three guys have a subpar game. Our margin for error is very small. They contested shots and were physical and sometimes that takes your confidence away."

Game Notes

Brandon Jennings added 12 points in the win for the Bucks, who improved to 12-11 at home...Milwaukee made just 2-of-13 three-point tries while Toronto missed all 10 of its attempts from long distance...The Raptors shot 36 percent overall but did make 12-of-13 foul shots...Jose Calderon added six points, seven assists and four rebounds in defeat.