Kings Dispose of Roadblock

Life on the road is getting better for the Sacramento Kings.

Peja Stojakovic scored 21 points and Chris Webber had 20 points and 15 rebounds, leading the Kings past the Milwaukee Bucks, 98-73, Sunday.

“That’s about as solid as we’ve played on the road in a while,” Sacramento Coach Rick Adelman said. “If we’re going to stay up with the people in the West, we’ve got to win these games on the road.”

Sacramento’s 25-point margin of victory was its largest this season on the road.

“This is the first road game all season that we really played well,” Stojakovic said. “We talked about how we have to take our practice game into the real game and play hard. Go hard out there and I think that’s what we did.”

Bobby Jackson finished with 15 points in a reserve role, and Mike Bibby had 13 points for the Kings, who improved their league-best record to 44-17 and evened their road record at 14-14.

Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell combined to shoot 20 for 44 and each scored 14 points for the Bucks.

Milwaukee absorbed its worst home loss this season, surpassing a 98-82 setback to Minnesota on Nov. 10.

“I’d have to say it’s one of the lowest points in the last four years since we’ve been winning,” Allen said.

Leading by seven points in the third quarter, Sacramento used an 11-0 run to move ahead, 67-49. The Kings added an 8-0 run and Jackson’s three-pointer at the buzzer gave them a 78-53 lead after three quarters.

Jackson scored the first two field goals of the fourth quarter to give the Kings a 29-point lead, their biggest of the game.

The Bucks started the game one for 11 and trailed, 11-2, before closing within 25-20 after one quarter. The Kings led by as many as 14 points in the second quarter and had a 46-34 lead at halftime.

“When we didn’t make shots early on, we lost our confidence out there,” Milwaukee Coach George Karl said. “That’s kind of been our Achilles’ heal this year. Tonight, I thought our offense was the problem.

“Defensively we were OK, but missing shots got us down early and we never recovered.”

Stojakovic scored 14 first-half points and Webber nearly completed a double-double before halftime, finishing with 11 points and nine rebounds.

“We know they’re a jump-shooting team and we are a little more fortunate that we have a little more presence inside,” Webber said. “We missed a lot of shots, too, but we executed well.”