The Milwaukee Bucks gave their playoff hopes a boost by routing the Washington Wizards 112-98 on Monday behind an attack led by Monta Ellis and Mike Dunleavy, who scored 17 points each.
Brandon Jennings finished with 10 points, seven assists and six rebounds, while Ersan Ilyasova had 16 points and 11 rebounds for Milwaukee. New York did not play on Monday night.
A half dozen players finished in double figures for the Bucks, who won for the third time in their past four games.
Jordan Crawford scored a game-high 23 points, while Kevin Seraphin added 15 for Washington, who lost their seventh game in the past eight.
Washington came out with plenty of spark, scoring 11 of the first 17 points of the game.
However, Milwaukee stormed back to take an 18-17 lead, which they would maintain for the rest of the game. The Wizards led 55-47 at the half.
The Bucks biggest lead in the fourth quarter was 23 points.
Milwaukee have now won four straight and 11 or the past 14 contests against Washington.
ROCKETS 99, BULL 93
In Chicago, the Bulls’ record run of avoiding successive defeats ended as they lost to the Houston Rockets.
Goran Dragic scored 21 points, while Luis Scola added 18 points and 12 rebounds for Houston, who trailed by 15 points in the first half before a 14-1 run late in the third, and then a 17-2 burst turned the game on its head.
Luol Deng scored 24 points for the Bulls, who had gone a team-record 86 regular-season games without dropping successive games. That is second only to Utah’s 95-game effort in the late 1990s.
GRIZZLIES 94, THUNDER 88
In Oklahoma City, the hosts’ six-game winning streak was ended by Memphis.
O.J. Mayo scored 22 points, including a key three-pointer with 17 seconds remaining, while Tony Allen added 15 for the Grizzlies, who were without starting point guard Mike Conley for a second straight game because of an ankle injury.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 21 points.
CLIPPERS 94, MAVERICKS 75
In Dallas, Los Angeles equalled their longest winning streak in 20 years, notching a sixth straight victory by comfortably beating defending champions Dallas.
Randy Foye had 28 points with a career-high eight three-pointers, while Blake Griffin had 15 points and 16 rebounds for the Clippers, who last won six in a row in March 1992.
Foye was 10 of 19 from the floor, including 8 of 15 from three-point range. Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 19 points.
JAZZ 102, BLAZERS 97
In Portland, Oregon, Paul Millsap had 31 points and pulled down 11 rebounds as Utah won their first game in four, beating Portland.
The Blazers led 97-94, but the Jazz reeled off the final eight points to snatch the game.
Al Jefferson hit a short jumper to cut the gap to one and then Millsap’s dunk gave Utah the lead. Millsap added another dunk to make it 100-97 and seal the game.
Wesley Matthews led Portland with 33 points.
In Monday’s other game, it was:
‧ Kings 116, Timberwolves 108
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