Bucks Down Celtics 117-109

There were no playoff implications, so Terrell Brandon decided to play for pride. And the love of the game.

"There's no truth to the rumor that I'm retiring at the end of this season," said Brandon, in his seventh NBA season. "I'm 27 years old and am the most motivated I've ever been in my career."

Brandon scored 22 points and had eight assists to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 117-109 victory over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night.

"Armon Gilliam came up to me before the game and we said that we need to have some team pride," said Brandon. "Even though we aren't in the playoffs, we're still professionals."

The teams shared a 35-44 record entering the game, but Milwaukee sank 14 consecutive free throws in the final four minutes to put the game out of reach, ending a two-game losing streak.

It was the fourth loss in five games for Boston, which needs one more win to post its best record since the 1992-93 season.

"They hit all their open shots and got good bench play tonight," said Boston's Antoine Walker. "Every time we seemed to make a run, we just couldn't get over the hump."

Milwaukee had six players finish in double figures, including Michael Curry (20), Jerald Honeycutt (17), Armon Gilliam (16) and Elliot Perry (11).

"Unfortunately, we had three starters go down," said Milwaukee coach Chris Ford. "Prior to the All-Star break we won six in a row. ... We have a good nucleus and have a good squad, particularly when we're healthy."

The Bucks were playing without leading scorer Glenn Robinson and leading rebounder Tyrone Hill.

"We kept our poise even when they made their run at the end," said Brandon. "We made our free throws when we needed to. I think we owe it to ourselves to play hard throughout the entire 82 games."

Boston was led by Walker's 24 points, despite playing with a nagging groin injury.

"I was trying to pick my spots tonight, because I was playing in some pain and I knew they'd be double-teaming me a lot," said Walker. "I was going to play no matter what. I just had to motivate myself tonight."

Tyus Edney added a season-high 17 points for the Celtics, including a fourth-quarter dunk that was his first in an NBA game.

The Celtics pulled within five points with 9:13 left as Milwaukee's Jamie Feick was called for goaltending Walker's short jumper. But Perry sank a 3-pointer and a 18-footer as Milwaukee pulled away.

Milwaukee has posted its best mark since 1990-91. This win gave the Bucks their best road record (15-25) since the same season.

Ron Mercer's jumper in the lane brought the Celtics within one point midway through the second quarter, but the Bucks went on a 14-4 run, wth Brandon scoring nine points to make it 57-46.

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