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Williams' 26 points leads Jazz past Bucks

Mar 13, 2008 - 4:59 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- The Utah Jazz could not keep up their torrid first-quarter pace on Wednesday. Luckily for them, they didn't need to.

Deron Williams had 26 points and 13 assists and Ronnie Brewer scored a career-high 21 for the Jazz, who defeated the Milwaukee Bucks, 114-110, at the Bradley Center.

The Jazz, who won for the sixth time in seven games, scored 40 first-quarter points thanks to shooting 76 percent (19-of-25), and led by as many as 16 points. But it was a fourth-quarter comeback that made the difference.

"It feels good, but it's another game that we feel we should have put away early," Williams said. "You can get away with it a couple times, but it's going to end up sneaking up on you."

The Jazz led, 89-87, after Matt Harpring scored in the paint with 10:53 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But the Bucks went on a 12-0 run to go ahead, 99-89, as Charlie Bell scored nine points and Royal Ivey hit a 3-pointer.

The Jazz sank 3-of-4 free throws to end the run, but Ivey hit another jumper and Andrew Bogut scored on a putback to put the Bucks up 103-92 with 4:30 left.

"They took the game over," said Utah forward Carlos Boozer, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds. "They had the momentum for a long time, but we came back and had stops the last four, five minutes of the games and made our free throws as well."

That's when the Jazz took over and finished with a 20-7 run. Brewer scored nine points during the run, including a pair of free throws that tied it 106-106 with 1:33 remaining.

Boozer's shot in the paint with 45 seconds left gave Utah the lead for good, 109-108 and, on the other end, Andrei Kirilenko blocked Michael Redd's attempted layup.

"That's what won the game for us - stops," Williams said. "That's why we started out so good - stops. I think we got away from that in the middle of the game. They got some confidence and started shooting lights out."

Charlie Villanueva and Redd had 26 each and Bell scored 24 for the Bucks, who are losers of four straight and seven of eight.

"The guys played well," Villanueva said. "We got in the penalty too early, and they made their free throws. That's how they got back into the game."

Milwaukee was without three injured starters, including forwards Yi Jianlian (wrist) and Desmond Mason (knee) and guard Mo Williams (abdomen). That trio averages 36.0 points.

"The toughest games you have to play are when players are sitting out for the other team," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said. "We stayed with what we had to do. It's a learning process to be able to win those games coming down the stretch."

Redd and Bell scored nine points each in the Bucks' 36-point second quarter as Milwaukee pulled to 63-63 at halftime. Redd's 3-pointer with at 1:39 into the third tied it at 65-65, and Bogut's hook shot over Carlos Boozer gave the Bucks a 75-74 lead with 6:06 left. It was Milwaukee's first lead of the game.

"The first quarter hurt us," Bucks coach Larry Krystkowiak said. "We came out real sluggish to start the game and then we played 36 minutes of pretty good basketball once we woke up at the end of the first quarter."