76ers 115, Bucks 107
PHILADELPHIA -- Guard-forward Evan Turner scored eight of his 27 points in overtime on Friday night as the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-107 to snap a four-game losing streak.
Center-forward Spencer Hawes added 25 points and 12 rebounds for the Sixers (6-8), who erased a 10-point deficit in the final 2:08 of regulation. Hawes' 3-pointer from the left corner with 1.7 seconds left -- a shot he made while jumping off one foot with Milwaukee's Gary Neal draped all over him -- forced the extra period.
Forward Caron Butler scored a season-high 38 points for Milwaukee, 16 of them in the last seven minutes of regulation. His 3-pointer with 2:08 left gave the Bucks a 98-88 lead, but the Sixers reeled off the next nine points as Hawes sandwiched two 3-pointers around one by James Anderson.
Milwaukee nonetheless held a 102-99 lead when Luke Ridnour made the second of two free throws with 3.9 seconds to play. Hawes then took an inbounds pass from Turner, wheeled on Neal and tossed in his tying 3-pointer.
Turner's jumper 16 seconds into overtime gave the Sixers a lead they never relinquished. He added another jumper on the next possession.
Rookie guard-forward Hollis Thompson added a season-high 16 points for Philadelphia. Another first-year player, point guard Michael Carter-Williams, had 12 points and 11 assists.
Forward Ersan Ilyasova had a season-high 19 for the Bucks (2-9), who lost their seventh straight. It is their longest losing streak since they dropped their final eight of the 2007-08 season.
The Sixers' bench sparked a 22-9 run spanning the first and second quarters, allowing Philadelphia to extend a 17-15 lead to 39-24. Reserve guard-forward Hollis Thompson had eight points in that spree, including an alley-oop dunk to start the second quarter off a pass from guard Tony Wroten. Another sub, center/forward Lavoy Allen, contributed four points.
Philadelphia was still leading 47-33 with 5:52 left in the second quarter. But the Bucks ended the half with a 20-8 flurry, featuring nine points from guard-forward Caron Butler and six from forward Ersan Ilysova.
The last of Butler's points came on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the left corner, off a pass from guard Luke Ridnour. That cut the Sixers' halftime lead to 55-53.
Butler finished the half with 17 points and Ilyasova had 12. Thompson topped the Sixers with 10.
The Bucks assumed their first lead since the first quarter at 66-64 on Butler's jumper midway through the third quarter. But the Sixers reeled off the next six points, four of those by Hawes.
With Philadelphia still up by four later in the quarter at 75-71, the Bucks went on a 9-1 run featuring two baskets by Ekpe Udoh and a 3-pointer by Gary Neal to claim an 80-76 advantage.
NOTES: There is no timetable for the return of 76ers F Thaddeus Young, who missed his second straight game for personal reasons. "We're going to allow him his space," coach Brett Brown said, "and let him handle the situation as he feels it best suits him and his family." ... Brown said before the game that the 76ers' problems defending 3-pointers this season stem only in part from an emphasis on clogging the lane. "You can count almost 15 points (a game) on mistakes -- just stone cold mistakes, that have nothing to do with defensive strategy or a no-paint philosophy," he said. "We've got to do a better job of guarding our man. As simple as that sounds, a large part of our problem is that." ... Bucks F Ersan Ilyasova made his first start since Nov. 2, after coming off the bench in Wednesday's loss to Portland and missing the previous six games with a sore right ankle. "He's moving around pretty well," coach Larry Drew said. "We've just got to get him into a rhythm."
