Kings 129, Bucks 118
MILWAUKEE -- Forward Rudi Gay scored 36 points and the Sacramento Kings couldn't miss Wednesday night, holding off the Milwaukee Bucks for a 129-118 victory at the Bradley Center.
Sacramento, which had just one road win this season last Saturday at Orlando, was wrapping up a five-game, five-city trip.
The Kings came out firing, hitting 17 of 22 shots from the field in the first quarter. including all three 3-point attempts.
And they never let up, finishing with a .517 shooting percentage and .435 (10 of 23) on 3-point attempts despite having to play without their leading scorer. Power forward DeMarcus Cousins sat out for the sixth time this season.
Sacramento had lost all five of those games, but the Kings picked up the slack in a big way against the Bucks, getting double-digit scoring from six of the eight players who appeared in the game.
Milwaukee shot 47.7 percent from the field, including 13 of 31 on 3-pointers.
Forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and shooting guard Khris Middleton scored 21 points each and forward John Henson added 15 for the Bucks.
Forward Jabari Parker sparked a 7-0 first-quarter run that saw the Bucks go up 20-18, but the Kings answered every Milwaukee challenge the rest of the way. The lead grew to eight before the Bucks cut the deficit to 93-92 in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
Guard Marco Belinelli, though, sent the Kings into the fourth quarter with a cushion, draining a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 96-92. They expanded the lead to 12 with five minutes to play and the Bucks never pulled any closer than six points the rest of the way.
The Kings led by 11 when Bucks coach Jason Kidd was ejected from the game with 1:49 left for hitting the ball out of an official's hand. Kidd had to be restrained by his players while leaving the floor.
NOTES: With F DeMarcus Cousins still sidelined with a sore back, F Kosta Koufos was in the Kings' starting lineup. In 15 games this season (five starts) before Wednesday, Koufos averaged 5.5 points and 4.7 rebounds. ... Milwaukee had its full roster available against Kings, except for G/F Damien Inglis, who is on a D-League assignment. ... Kings coach George Karl was Milwaukee's head coach from 1998-2003 and led the Bucks to the 2001 Eastern Conference Finals.