Bucks 99, Pacers 85
MILWAUKEE -- Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings each scored 16 points and Samuel Dalembert added 14 as the Bucks rolled to a 99-85 victory Wednesday over the Indiana Pacers in Milwaukee.
Second-year forward Tobias Harris scored 11 on 4-of-5 shooting, while pulling down four rebounds and dishing out two assists as the Bucks improved to 5-2 for the first time since the 2009-2010 season.
The Bucks shot 3 for 16 from beyond 3-point arc, which put a blemish on an otherwise impressive shooting effort. Without the 3-pointers, Milwaukee connected on 35 of 75 attempts, a 47 percent clip.
Indiana had little go right Wednesday.
Playing without Danny Grainger, out for at least the next three months with a bad knee, the Pacers have struggled to put points on the board. That trend continued as Indiana shot just 37.5 percent from the field and hit 5 of 20 three-point attempts.
George Hill, Indiana's second-leading scorer at 15.5 points a game, missed nine of his first 10 shots from the field and finished with 12 on 5-of-17 shooting. Tyler Hansborough led the Pacers with a season-high 17 points and Gerald Green added 13.
The Bucks capitalized on six Indiana turnovers and shot 50 percent (12-for-24) from the field to jump out to a 33-17 lead after the first quarter, with both Jennings and Dalembert scoring eight points.
Milwaukee stretched the lead to as many as 26 points in the second quarter as shooting woes continued to plague the Pacers, who came into the game shooting just 40.1 percent from the field this season. Indiana shot just 32.4 percent (12-for-37) from the field before the break, 8-for-15 from the free-throw line, and they trailed 60-34 at halftime.
NOTES: On the third anniversary of his 55-point game as a rookie, Jennings recorded one steal Wednesday. That stopped his streak of consecutive games with multiple steals at seven. It was the longest active streak in the NBA. ... Bucks guard Monta Ellis and center Epke Udoh were held out of the team's morning shoot-around due to injuries but were dressed and available Wednesday, with Ellis starting. ... Milwaukee forward Drew Gooden was inactive for the fourth consecutive game. ... Forward David West started for Indiana. He'd been listed as day-to-day with a sprained right ankle. ... The two teams were involved in some minor altercations over a two-game stretch last season.
