Final
Marion leads Sun past Bucks for 19th consecutive time
Dec 2, 2006 - 4:58 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- "The Valley of the Sun" is supposed to be a great place to have fun. But not for the Milwaukee Bucks.The Bucks lost their 19th straight visit here, suffering a 122-116 setback to the Phoenix Suns, who received double-doubles from Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion.
Milwaukee is tied for the longest active road losing streak with Denver, which has dropped 19 straight game at Sacramento. The Bucks have not won here since February 21, 1987 - when Stoudemire was 4 years old.
"We have to improve on winning close games on the road," Milwaukee guard Michael Redd said. "We played pretty well against a tough team at home, where we haven't won in years. We were ready to play basketball but Phoenix made some plays."
Stoudemire scored on a monstrous one-handed jam over Ruben Patterson, then made the free throw to complete the three-point play as Phoenix build a 110-103 advantage with 4:39 remaining.
"It is just the way the play was played out," Stoudemire said. "I am feeling pretty brand new. It was when we needed a basket. The team did a great job of creating and they saw me in the corner and I finished."
Bucks rookie Ersan Ilyasova's two free throws cut the deficit to 115-112 with 58 seconds left. However, Marion and Nash combined to make 7-of-8 foul shots to keep Milwaukee at bay.
"We buckled down and hit free throws at the end," Marion said. "Everybody knows we can score. We have to stop people."
"I thought we were tough in the second half," Nash said. "We were much more determined and that was the difference. All of us look to be aggressive when opportunities come. You just have to be a competitor and try to make one."
Nash had 27 points and 11 assists, Marion had 27 and 14 rebounds and Stoudemire 22 and 11 for the Suns, who shot 50 percent (41-of-81) from the floor.
Leandro Barbosa scored 20 points off the bench and Raja Bell added 18 for Phoenix, which has won a season-best six consecutive games by average of 8.8 points.
Michael Redd scored 37 points and Mo Williams chipped in a season-best 31 with 10 assists for Milwaukee, which shot 51 percent (47-of-92) and scored 52 points in the paint.
"We competed hard against a good team on the road and with two minutes left, anything could have happened," Bucks coach Terry Stotts said. "We had some opportunities to make some free throws but things didn't go our (way) in the fourth quarter."
Patterson scored eight straight points for the Bucks, helping them close to 100-98 with just under seven minutes to go. He finished with 16 points.
"I was telling my teammates to keep their heads up because we played a (heck) of a game," Patterson said.
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