Ellis leads Bucks past Kings, 115-113

Monta Ellis had 29 points and nine assists, Dunleavy scored 14 of his 16 points after being hit, and Milwaukee held off Sacramento for a 115-113 win on Sunday night.

Defeating the Kings, who rallied from a 15-point deficit in the final four minutes, pleased Dunleavy. But so did answering Cousins' talk and physical confrontation by making four 3-pointers after Cousins was ejected at the 3:26 mark of the third quarter following a flagrant 2 foul.

"I'm not going to begin to try and reason with someone like that," Dunleavy said. "I'm not even sure what I did, I thought I was just blocking him out."

The temperamental Cousins thought otherwise. After Dunleavy stepped in front of Cousins in a somewhat crouched position, he was confronted by the Kings center after play was stopped. Both Cousins and Dunleavy were called for technical fouls.

But that wasn't the end of it. Following a timeout, the Bucks were running a play and Dunleavy wound up under the Kings basket, behind Cousins, who swung an elbow that hit Dunleavy's head. Cousins was called for the flagrant foul and ejected from the game for the fourth time this season.

"He confronted me after the timeout; he got in my face," Dunleavy said. "In those situations, you've got to be ready. I felt like something was probably going to happen. He is always talking."

The retaliation came, but Dunleavy got his revenge. He scored five points in the third quarter following the ejection, then hit a pair of threes and scored nine points in the fourth, helping Milwaukee build a 15-point lead.

"Something like that gets you going," Dunleavy said. "I was able to knock down a couple of shots after that. It was a crazy game all things considered. We were fortunate to get out of here with a win."

It was the 12th technical this year for Cousins, who was having a great game before to the incident. He had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings, who lost for the third time in four games.

"You've got to be smarter knowing when you get into an altercation with somebody the refs and everybody in the arena is going to be looking at you for the next few plays," Kings guard Isaiah Thomas said. "When things like this happen we say 'just calm down.' But he wears his emotions on his sleeve. He just has to be smarter."

The Bucks won their second straight game and sixth in seven contests. Before the current streak, Milwaukee had dropped nine of 11 games.

Brandon Jennings had 16 points and eight assists for the Bucks, Gustavo Ayon scored 12 points, and Ekpe Udoh and Samuel Dalembert had 10 apiece.

The Bucks, who played Saturday night at Golden State, played without starting center Larry Sanders, who was injured against the Warriors. Milwaukee also was without two key reserves, forward Ersan Ilyasova and guard JJ Redick, who expects to play Tuesday.