MILWAUKEE – Andres Nocioni scored 21 points, Ben Gordon added 20 and Luol Deng had 19 to lead the Chicago Bulls to their third straight victory, 99-90 over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.

It was Gordon’s seventh straight game with at least 20 points and it helped give the Bulls a rare win in Milwaukee, where they had lost 15 of the previous 16 times. Milwaukee, which got a career-high 22 points from 19-year-old Ersan Ilyasova, committed a season-high 26 turnovers.

Still, Milwaukee led 73-65 late in the third quarter before Chicago went on a 20-3 run to take its first lead since the first half. Milwaukee missed its first 10 shots of the fourth quarter.

Milwaukee’s only basket during the run was from Ilyasova, who hit a step-back 3-pointer to give the Bucks their last lead at 76-74 with 7:37 left.

Deng and Nocioni hit jumpers as Chicago retook the lead, and after two free throws by Deng, Gordon intercepted Andrew Bogut’s pass and flung it 60 feet down court in stride to Kirk Hinrich for an easy layup.

On the next possession, Ruben Patterson was stripped and Gordon hit a 3-pointer to give the Bulls an 85-76 lead with 5:12 left. Chicago extended that lead to 12 and the Bucks never got back within striking distance.

Bulls center Ben Wallace returned to the starting lineup after missing two games with a sore lower back. He had 10 rebounds.

Milwaukee got 17 points from Earl Boykins, 12 from Brian Skinner and 10 from Charlie Bell to go along with 15 points and 11 rebounds from Patterson. But the Bucks shot 4-of-22 from the field in the final quarter, sealing their fate.

Hinrich finished with 16 points and nine assists for Chicago, which played at the Bucks’ frenetic pace for three quarters before re-establishing the defensive dominance the Bulls showed in allowing an average of 79.6 points in the previous three games.

It was supposed to finally be the dazzling home debut of Boykins, the second-shortest player in the history of the NBA at 5-foot-5, after Saturday’s game against the Hornets was postponed because of inclement weather.

He had scored 30 points in his previous outing at Charlotte and showed flashes of brilliance against the Bulls, but also committed five turnovers and failed to knock down timely shots.

Known as a favorite in Denver, four fans without their shirts spelled out “EARL” in honor of the Bucks’ newest point guard, who was acquired along with Julius Hodge in a trade with the Nuggets last week for Steve Blake.

Milwaukee, without starters Michael Redd, Mo Williams, Bobby Simmons and Charlie Villanueva, did have some promising play early from Ilyasova and fellow rookie David Noel.

It just wasn’t enough to keep the more experienced Bulls at bay.