"They're very long and very athletic," Bucks coach Scott Skiles said. "They play with a lot of energy. They've got a good bench and are strong at every spot on the floor. They rarely lose at home. They're a very, very good young team."

Richard Jefferson and Charlie Villanueva scored 23 points each for the Bucks, who finished the trip with a 1-2 record. Greg Oden scored 24 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 22 for Portland, which pounded the Bucks on the boards.

The Trail Blazers wasted little time in gaining the upper hand in the game as, with Milwaukee making two of its first 12 shots and turning the ball over twice, Portland jumped out to a 19-8 lead. The Bucks heated up later in the quarter and cut Portland's lead to 22-19 after one quarter. Twice in the second quarter the Bucks closed to within one but were unable to take the lead and Portland led at halftime, 45-40.

Sparked by Aldridge, Portland scored eight straight points early in the third quarter to take a 53-42 lead. A three-point play by Oden started a 7-0 run that gave Portland a 64-48 lead with 3 minutes 52 seconds left. But the Bucks surged late, got a three-pointer each from Jefferson and Tyronn Lue, and trimmed the lead to 71-64 after three quarters. Jefferson scored 11 points in the third quarter.

Early in the fourth quarter, a three-pointer by Villanueva bounced around the rim and fell in to cut Portland's lead to 76-71. But with Oden muscling the Bucks inside, quickly pushed its lead back up to 85-73.

The defeat was the Bucks second straight and ended the win one, lose one pattern that they had been stuck in for nearly a month that Skiles says has been directly related to the team's inconsistent defense.

"This up and down stretch we've had recently over a dozen games now, we've gotten better offensively and worse defensively during this stretch, statistically anyway," he said. One night, it's the fouling or another night it's the offensive boards. It's one of the reasons we've won one, lost one, won one, lost one. We're still searching for consistency on the defensive end."

One comforting thought now for the Bucks is that they are now done traveling to the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Not many Eastern teams can say that since the season is just barely past the mid-way point. The only road games that remain against Western Conference teams are at Dallas and at New Orleans at the end of February.

"That's very unusual," said forward Richard Jefferson.

The Bucks finished with a 1-4 road record against teams from Portland's Northwest Division, and 1-4 against teams from the Pacific Division. The Bucks are 2-1 so far on the road against teams from the Southwest Division.

Last season, the Bucks were 2-13 on the road against the Western Conference.

The Bucks will play four of their remaining seven games this month at home and then the schedule finally lightens up in February.

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