Lakers Break the Milwaukee Jinx, 106-84 : Pro basketball: Threatt and Smith lead way as Los Angeles ends a seven-game losing streak.

MILWAUKEE — He has a shooter’s mentality, which is a nice way of saying that within 20 feet of the basket even he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

“I can go one for 10 in a game,” Sedale Threatt said, “and in my mind it was 10 for 10.”

But when Threatt has the shooter’s touch to go with the shooter’s mentality, he’s at his most dangerous.

Such has been the case in the seven games since he was moved into the starting lineup, and it continued Monday night as he made nine of 16 attempts and scored 20 points in a 106-84 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in front of 14,978 fans at the Bradley Center.

Threatt could have done more, but came out with 8:57 remaining and the Lakers coasting during a fourth quarter in which they led by as many as 27 points. That created added opportunity for Tony Smith, the former starter, who responded by recording career highs with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lakers are averaging 102.9 points in their last seven games, an increase of about about three per game as they try to avoid a sub-100 season for the first time since the team moved to Los Angeles. Threatt’s contribution is obvious: 20.9 points, 6.3 assists and 55.4% from the field since being promoted.

“That’s my game,” he said after the Lakers recorded their second-largest winning margin of the season. “My shot is there. Van (Nick Van Exel) is doing a great job of getting me the ball. All the guys are looking for me.”

Threatt got his shots, but Smith got an opportunity and took it from there. After missing his first three attempts, all within a few feet of the basket, he recovered to make 11 of 14 the rest of the way, highlighting the return to his hometown and his former home court while at Marquette with 19 points in the fourth quarter. The 29 minutes was the most he has played in a month and a day.

“That just made it all the better,” said Smith, who went from starting 14 games in a row to not playing at all the next five and then getting eight minutes Saturday at Washington. “I was happy to just get in the game, for Randy (Pfund) to give me the opportunity to play. It was extra special to be at home and then to play so well.”

Said Pfund: “I believe you’ve got to give a guy a chance in his hometown.”

The Lakers had a seven-game losing streak in Milwaukee, including five consecutive defeats at the Bradley Center. Pfund used that as motivation.

It worked so well, with the help of the Bucks and their 25 turnovers, that the Lakers built an eight-point lead in the first quarter and went ahead by 11 in the second period before turning the game into a blowout after halftime. That allowed them to earn a split of the four-game trip, their final extended swing of the season.

“I just said to them it had been eight years since we won here,” Pfund said. “We had never won at the Bradley Center. We get a lot of talk of what we aren’t anymore. I thought this was an opportunity for us to do something our good teams didn’t do.”

Laker Notes

Elden Campbell was off to a good start--12 points and 10 rebounds by halftime--before a sprained ankle early in the third quarter ended his night after 26 minutes. “I did want to keep going,” he said, “but it wasn’t worth taking a risk. I thought it was best for me to come out.” . . . The annual trip to Milwaukee, which has the largest Serbian population in the United States, is always a highlight for Vlade Divac, but especially this year because of his part in a fundraiser Sunday that helped raise more than $7,000 for the children of all backgrounds in the former Yugoslavia. On Monday night, some fans at the Bradley Center held up a Serbian flag as he got a warm ovation. “It’s a nice feeling,” said Divac, who had 10 rebounds and seven points. “Real nice. Like a home game.”