FOURTH QUARTER (Kings 96, Bucks 95)
MILWAUKEE - Tyreke Evans may have spent much of the night getting burned by his own mistakes, but he burnt the Bucks in the end.
The Kings rookie's driving layup with 0.9 seconds left gave the Kings the win, with Evans' right jab step in the lane nothing short of a thing of beauty. Andrew Bogut's enormous frame slid to his left while Evans finished with his right hand. Bogut missed a jumper at the buzzer as the Kings broke their eight-game losing streak on the road.
It was the second straight wise choice for Evans, whose decision making was suspect all night. Seconds earlier, he drove the lane and passed back to Jason Thompson when he hit a defensive wall. Thompson's 6-footer put the Kings up 94-93.
In between, Brandon Jennings had found Ersan Ilyasova for a wide-open layup after the Bucks point guard picked up the loos ball as the Bucks led 95-94 with five seconds left.
In the end, Evans finishes with 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists and six turnovers. Jennings had 15 points on 4 of 11 shooting, nine assists, and just one turnover.
THIRD QUARTER (Kings 73, Bucks 72)
There won't be many times this gets written this season, but the Kings were better without Tyreke Evans. For a short stretch anyways.
The rookie simply got frustrated and tried to do it by himself midway through the third, when he was either forcing jumpers on zero-pass possesions or losing the ball in the lane or getting called for a charge. He came out with two minutes left, and the Kings finished the quarter on an 8-2 run.
Jason Thompson had a 20-footer and short jumper in that stretch, Omri Casspi had two free throws and Beno Udrih (14 points) hit a runner to put the Kings ahead with two seconds left.
While Evans has a game-high 18 points, he has just two assists and four turnovers.
SECOND QUARTER (Bucks 53, Kings 49)
Tyreke Evans scored the Kings' final four points, slicing through three defenders to cut the Bucks' lead to 51-47 then keeping it at four points (53-49) when he squeezed under Andrew Bogut and got a layup over him at the halftime buzzer.
Otherwise, though, it was a bad finish to a good half for the Kings. Spencer Hawes had a rough few minutes, getting blocked on two straight inside attempts, then fouling Bogut to put him at the line and cap a 14-3 Milwaukee run that put the Bucks up 50-45. Bogut has 13 points already, with almost all of it coming against Hawes.
Evans has 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting, while fellow Rookie of the Year candidate Brandon Jennings has seven points, five assists, three rebounds and one turnover. Jennings was clearly looking to distribute early, but that focus lasted far longer than I'd anticipated as he didn't take his first shot until there was 3:25 left in the second quarter. The three-pointer from the right wing put the Bucks up one (He got it over Hawes after losing Evans on a screen). He got to the line for two free throws shortly thereafter, then buried a 20-footer to put the Bucks up three.
It wasn't the first time he has waited so long to look for his offense, as Jennings went the first 28 minutes of last Saturday's home game against Portland without taking a shot. He wound up taking 17 shots in that game (hitting seven) and finishing with 18 points. Of course the ultimate example of his streaky ways was his 55-point game against Golden State on Nov. 14, when he didn't score in the first quarter and had 45 points in the second half.
FIRST QUARTER (Kings 21, Bucks 21)
Score Round One to Tyreke Evans in the Rookie of the Year bout.
The Kings rookie has eight points on four of seven shooting and two assists (two turnovers too), and has come with the sort of energy he didn't have last night. The Bucks' Brandon Jennings is obviously looking to get everyone involved and has done a nice job of doing so, as he has four assists and no turnovers. He is scoreless, however.
The Kings trailed 11-6 early after an Ersan Ilyasova jumper, but finished shooting 45.5 percent (10 of 22) while holding the Bucks to 39.1 percent shooting (9 of 23).
For a guy who says he doesn't like changing his starting lineups, Kings coach Paul Westphal has a funny way of showing it. He went with his 10th different lineup of the season tonight, with Spencer Hawes returning after two games off the bench and joined by Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Andres Nocioni and Jason Thompson. Only two of those lineups included Kevin Martin, meaning eight of them have been Westphal tinkering.
Evans continues to deal with the effects of right tendintis, as evidenced by trainer Pete Youngman rubbing a Ben-Gay type lotion underneath his brace before the game..
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