Villanueva burns Raptors yet again

Charlie Villanueva says playing against the Toronto Raptors is no big deal. His numbers against his former team would suggest otherwise.
Michael Redd scored a season-high 35 points and Villanueva added 13 of his 25 in the fourth quarter last night, leading Milwaukee to a 107-97 win over the visiting Toronto Raptors.

Milwaukee, which finished the game on a 13-0 run, lost its previous nine games—including four this season—without former No. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut, who missed his second-straight game with back spasms.
But the Bucks did just fine without him for one night, thanks to Villanueva, who insisted it was no big deal to play against the Raptors.
Toronto drafted him seventh overall in 2005, but dealt him for T.J. Ford the next year.
Too bad his broad smile betrayed him.
“I make my shots when I play Toronto. We should be playing Toronto every game,” said Villanueva, averaging 23.2 points in the last five games against the Raptors—10 above his career average.
The Raptors, playing without centre Jermaine O’Neal and guard Jose Calderon on this two-game road trip, turned to Chris Bosh, who had 31 points on 12-of-14 shooting and 11 rebounds to help Toronto hold the lead through most of three quarters.
The Raptors shot 54 percent for the night.
“I felt we could’ve been a little more aggressive,” Bosh said.
The Bucks simply outscored the Raptors down the stretch—getting 11 points each from Charlie Bell and Ramon Sessions and sending one of the NBA’s most disappointing teams to another loss after it appeared Toronto had built some momentum with a big win over Orlando on Sunday.
“It’s disappointing because this certainly was a winnable game,” said Anthony Parker, who finished with 12 points.
Even with a 14-21 record, Toronto is within sniffing distance of the playoffs in the woeful Eastern Conference as the season approaches the halfway point. Milwaukee (17-19) would be the eighth seed—even though Villanueva acknowledges it’s way too early to think about that.
“This is one of the teams that’s competing for the eight, seven, six spots,” Villanueva said. “Getting this win was huge, big, well-needed.”
Neither Bosh nor Andrea Bargnani, who added 21 points as O’Neal’s replacement, could keep up with the Bucks down the stretch.
“You can break down any segment of the game and they were able to hit tough shots,” Raptors’ coach Jay Triano said. “We were up five, then they hit tough shots. We were up four, then they hit tough shots.”
Will Solomon, who started 1-for-9 as Calderon’s replacement but tied a career high with 11 assists, hit a long jumper from the wing to give Toronto a 95-91 lead with 2:52 left.
Luke Ridnour, who had been 0-for-5 to that point, answered with a three-pointer and Bosh added two more free throws before a three-pointer by Bell tied it 97-97.
Toronto then went cold, missing its final five attempts as Villanueva added an 18-footer and Ridnour a three-pointer with 34 seconds left to give Milwaukee its seventh win in the last eight home games.
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence at home,” Villanueva said. “We’re starting to protect our home court.
“You can’t lose at home. That’s our mentality,” he added.
Elsewhere in the NBA, New Jersey beat Sacramento 98-90, San Antonio downed Miami 91-84, Denver bombed Indiana 135-115, and Utah topped Golden State 119-114.