NBA News Wire
Nuggets 101, Bucks 90
MILWAUKEE — Forward Kenneth Faried led Denver with 26 points as the Nuggets snapped a five-game losing streak with a 101-90 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
Faried went 11-of-15 from the field, pacing a Nuggets offense that shot 51 percent and sank 8 of 18 3-pointers.
Forward Wilson Chandler hit all three of his 3-point attempts and was 6 of 8 overall to finish with 15 points while center J.J. Hickson added 14 with 10 rebounds.
Center Timofey Mozgoz hit 8 of 10 free throws and also finished with 14 points and added nine rebounds for the Nuggets (25-28), whose last victory came last Wednesday when they beat the Bucks, 110-100, in Denver.
Six Bucks scored in double figures, led by forward Caron Butler’s 17.
Forward Ersan Ilyasova added 14 while guard Nate Wolters and John Henson each finished with 12.
Guard O.J. Mayo scored 11 in his first action since Jan. 25, as did forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who tied a career-high with three blocked shots.
Milwaukee made just one of seven 3-pointers in the first half while the Nuggets hit six of 12 and led by as many as 12 before taking a 50-42 lead into halftime.
The Bucks shot 55 percent out of the break, but Denver went 12 for 19 from the field in the third.
Butler made it a five-point game with 10 minutes to play when Antetokounmpo found him open from 17 feet, but Denver answered with a 10-2 run while Milwaukee didn’t make its next field goal until point guard Nate Wolters connected from short range with 3:23 left.
Milwaukee (10-44) lost five of its last six and remains the only team in the league to not win back-to-back games this season.
NOTES: Earlier Thursday, Milwaukee sent G Luke Ridnour and G Gary Neal to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for G Ramon Sessions and F Jeff Adrien. Neal saw limited playing time since signing a two-year, $6 million deal with the Bucks this summer and averaged 10.0 points while shooting 36 percent from the field in 30 games. Ridnour appeared in 36 games and averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 assists during his second stint with the Bucks. … Sessions, originally drafted by Milwaukee in 2007, is expected to join the Bucks on Friday . … The Nuggets were also active Thursday, shipping G Andre Miller to Philadelphia as part of a three-team trade that brought F Jan Vesely to Denver, along with a second-round draft pick. Miller had not played since Jan. 2, when he was suspended for an incident with Nuggets coach Brian Shaw.