MILWAUKEE _ Whenever the Milwaukee Bucks needed him on Friday night, Khris Middleton was there.
And they sure did need him.
With the game tied and five minutes left, Middleton went on a scoring spree. He put up the Bucks' next 12 points, including a personal 8-0 run, to give Milwaukee the breathing room it needed on the way to a 109-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The win was Milwaukee's second of the three-game homestand with the Bucks hoping to avenge an embarrassing loss again when they host the Utah Jazz on Saturday night.
Middleton scored 16 of his game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter, with none being more important than his buckets over the final five minutes. None of them came easy, as the first three come on jumpers before he fired a 3-pointer from the top of the key, catching nothing but net despite a foul by Mavericks forward Dwight Powell.
He completed the four-point play, and following a miss by Eric Bledsoe he completed his 8-0 run with a spin for a bucket that gave the Bucks their largest lead of the night at seven points with just over two minutes remaining.
Caught in a funk for most of the first three quarters, Milwaukee habitually found itself in a hole around or above 10 points. Then the Bucks woke up late in the third with a 12-0 run that spanned less than a minute and a half.
Naturally, Middleton played a central role. He deposited two of his five 3-pointers during that stretch while adding a free throw on a technical foul assessed to Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle.
Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 27 points and 11 rebounds, while Bledsoe added 24 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter.
"Khris was great, Bled was great, Giannis was great," head coach Jason Kidd said. "I think the first half we kind of fell into the trap of them walking the ball and we were kind of just going through the motions and we put a lot of pressure on our offense, which we weren't making shots. Then that puts a lot of pressure on our defense."
Outside of their three leading players, the Bucks got plenty of contributions off the bench, especially in the second half. Thon Maker was all over the court, coming up with critical rebounds and a pair of blocks to help steady the Bucks on the inside.
Malcolm Brogdon logged 40 minutes with Tony Snell out due to left patellar tendinitis and contributed 14 points and a team-high six assists. DeAndre Liggins reprised his usual role as defensive pest, eliciting the technical foul on Carlisle after drawing a charge against J.J. Barea and coming up with a backcourt steal during his 19 minutes.
"I thought Thon was great off the bench," Kidd said. "Him and Liggins gave us a spark with Malcolm. ... Our bench helped us find a way to win the game. ...
"Those two (Maker and Liggins) take a lot of pride on the defensive end. We talked about energy at halftime. We needed someone to give us a spark and I thought, again, Liggins and Thon were great energy-wise."
