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Young nets career high as Wizards top Bucks

Mar 12, 2008 - 3:39 AM By Tim Hipps PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Rookie reserve Nick Young scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Washington Wizards to a 105-97 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night.

Young came off the bench and scored 11 points in the second quarter, including a dunk over Andrew Bogut that gave the Wizards a 34-28 lead. Young then excitedly lunged into Bogut and caught the brunt of the 7-foot, 260-pound center's shoulder and drew a technical foul for the rookie mistake.

"I had my back to him, so I guess he must of - I don't know what he (did)," said Bogut, the No. 1 pick in the 2005 NBA Draft. "I was just taking the ball out, so I guess he probably stood up to me or whatever. I had my back to him so I don't really know."

At any rate, the play sent Young on his way to a career night. Young had another slam on the run that gave the Wizards a 46-35 lead with 3:24 remaining in the half.

"He's offensive-minded, and we knew that," Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "When he touches the ball, he's going to look to score. The disappointing part was in the first half we had some breakdowns, whether it was 1-on-1 or we couldn't keep him in front of us on pick-and-rolls.

"I don't care if it's eighth grade or what league you're in, if you want to get a guy going and feeling good about himself, you let him dunk his first couple baskets - and then we couldn't stop the bleeding from that point. It's real important that we didn't let that happen. I would rather that he had to take that jumper, or scrape himself up off the hardwood, rather than going in and dunking it."

Young said he was just trying to make things happen.

"I was being more aggressive," he said. "I got my confidence up during the Toronto game and carried it over from there. I am trying to play at a high level and do anything I can to help us get a win."

The Wizards scored a season-high 66 points in the paint against the Bucks, who exhibited horrid rotations on their help defense. Washington had 10 dunks in the first half.

"They were able to get into the paint whenever they wanted," Bogut said. "Young did a great job. He went right the whole time and he did go up over the top of me. I tried to go up and get his shot.

"He did a great job of handing off to (Andray) Blatche and (Brendan) Haywood, and we didn't have that second and third rotation. It wasn't there, which it hasn't been all season, and when you give up an open dunk, it's frustrating."

Antawn Jamison had 23 points and eight rebounds and Haywood and Blatche added 15 points apiece for the Wizards, who squandered a 13-point lead but held off the Bucks down the stretch.

"I was trying to dunk everything I could tonight," Blatche said.

Young's three-point play over Milwaukee guard Desmond Mason gave the Wizards a 103-91 lead with 1:35 remaining. Another three-point play by Young gave Washington an 89-85 advantage midway through the fourth quarter.

"We want him to be a well-rounded player," Wizards coach Eddie Jordan said. "It is the same thing we wanted Gilbert (Arenas) to have his first year here."

The Bucks erased their 13-point deficit with a 19-6 run in the third quarter, capped by Bogut's layup for a 63-63 tie.

"As a team, as a whole, we didn't play badly in the second half," said Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva, who had 24 points. "I think we lost that game in the first half. We had a tremendous third quarter, but we just couldn't put it together."

"I think the first and the fourth definitely hurt us and, in the NBA, they're the main quarters," added Bogut, who had 23 points and 11 rebounds.

Michael Redd led the Bucks with 26 points, but he scored 13 in the fourth quarter and most of those came after the outcome was decided.

"In the first half, I was struggling," Redd said. "I missed shots; just couldn't hit anything. In the second half, I said, 'You know what? I'm going to get to the rim. I'm going to attack the rim.' I started surging and trying to do whatever I could to help my team.

"It's not always about scoring. Sometimes, it's just doing the little things to help the team, but I know I was determined in the second half to be more aggressive to the rim to try to get some calls, at least."

But Redd was just as responsible for letting Young run through the Bucks.

"Yeah, they got a lot of dunks tonight," Redd said. "That was unexcusable. We've got to sharpen it up. We're not making our rotations. We've got to fix it. We've got to get a cohesion on defense, but I know there's only 18 games left in the regular season, but we've at least got to make an effort."