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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Once they saw the Milwaukee Bucks were getting tired, C.J. Miles and the Utah Jazz really put on the pressure.
"Coach (Jerry Sloan) wanted us to run and be aggressive late in the game. They started getting on their heels and we took it to them," said Miles, who scored a season-high 25 points in Utah's 104-94 victory over Milwaukee on Wednesday night.
Ronnie Price played the entire second half and scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter when the Jazz outscored the Bucks 31-18.
"Coach told us to pick it up, push the ball up the court and make some plays on defense," Price said.
Carlos Boozer added 20 points and 11 rebounds before leaving because of a strained left quadriceps that wasn't expected to sideline him long.
"It's good to keep winning, but we need to stop losing people. We won, but if we keep losing people that's not good," Andrei Kirilenko said.
Kirilenko, who played point guard at times for the depleted Jazz, had 16 points, seven rebounds, five steals and four blocks to help the Jazz stay undefeated at home and extend their mastery of the Bucks to eight straight games.
"That second group with Andrei and those guys got us going again and got us the lead with hustle plays," Sloan said. "We tried to do a better job defensively and that s what we had to do to finish the ballgame with a win."
Richard Jefferson scored 25 points, and Andrew Bogut had 16 points and 20 rebounds for Milwaukee, coming off a loss in Denver on Tuesday night. Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions had 15 points each for Milwaukee.
"We had our opportunities to come in here and win," Jefferson said. "We were up 10 in the second half and set the tone. We just didn't finish the job."
Milwaukee led by 10 in the third quarter before the Jazz began outrunning the weary Bucks. With Sloan urging them to run at every opportunity, the Jazz took their first lead of the second half on Price's driving layup that made it 80-78.
"We were up 10 and just relaxed and kind of stopped playing for a couple minutes and allowed them to get back in the game," Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said. "Then we just looked flat-out worn out in the fourth quarter."
The Bucks took their last lead on Austin Croshere s 3-pointer with 8:11 to play, then sputtered to the finish. Boozer scored twice inside and then assisted on Price's layup to spark a 13-3 run that buried the Bucks.
Injuries forced the Jazz to play Kirilenko at the point in the second quarter. On one play, the 6-foot-9 leaper blocked Sessions' jumper, took the ball down the court and threw an alley-oop pass to Miles for a dunk.
While Kirilenko was running the offense, the Jazz led by as many as 16, but the Bucks closed the half with a 23-6 run to take a 53-51 lead.
Miles scored his 25 points in just 29 minutes. "I'm just being aggressive, being assertive," Miles said. "I'm looking for a chance to create, not for myself, but for somebody else. And then if I can get an open layup or something to get me going, guys are finding me and I'm just trying to make shots."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
