The Pacers now hold homecourt advantage in this series
In a frustrating manner, the Milwaukee Bucks crumbled at home and fell to the Indiana Pacers, 125-108. Miss the Rapid Recap for this one? Check it out here.
Game Summary
The three ball was flying for both teams early on, particularly Brook Lopez. The big man knocked down several of them in the opening quarter. The Pacers weathered the storm of 3-pointers from the Bucks though, chipping away and then snatching away the lead. After a quarter of play, Indiana held a 30-26 lead.
The Pacers maintained their lead following the second quarter. Pascal Siakam continued to be a thorn in the Bucks’ side, going off for 21 in the half. Milwaukee had just eight points in the paint compared to Indiana’s 22.
The third quarter started off in a disastrous manner for Milwaukee. Indiana raced up and down the floor, quickly building up a double-digit lead. The Bucks would claw their way back, but Tyrese Haliburton helped commandeer the Pacers’ lead back with a 92-83 advantage going into the final quarter of regulation.
The Bucks started to crumble in the fourth. A combination of unfocused basketball and lack of discipline developed into a lackadaisical style of basketball that Indiana took advantage of. Everything from poor shots to silly mistakes plagued Milwaukee in the end, allowing Indiana to waltz out of Fiserv Forum with a 125-108 victory along with homecourt advantage.
Pascal Siakam was the star in this one. He’d rattle off a game-high 37 points on 16-of-23 shooting. Myles Turner drained several threes en route to a 22 point performance and Andrew Nembhard dropped 20 of his own.
Damian Lillard was once again the leading scorer for the Bucks, scoring 34 points on the night. Brook Lopez splashed home 22 points.
Game 3 is on tap for Friday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. CDT in Indianapolis.
What Did We Learn?
Pascal Siakam continues to cause problems for the Bucks.
I guess technically we already knew this, but it continued to be an issue for Milwaukee. After dropping a playoff career-high 36 points in Game 1, he followed that up with a 37 point performance last night, reaching a new career-high. In his postgame presser, Doc Rivers mentioned how he thought how he was able to pose a threat from the perimeter is what changed the dynamic in this one. He’d shoot 75% in that area, going 3-of-4 in the game. Moving forward, the Bucks are going to need to re-evaluate their defensive approach on him, as you know Indiana is going to keep riding him. Game 3 will be intriguing in that manner.
Three Observations
Who says that this series doesn’t have defense?
This series was expected to feature high-octane offenses that scored at will. While there has been some impressive scoring, the total point totals haven’t been what were expected. The under has hit in both games so far as well. Last night, Indiana frustrated Milwaukee all night long with pressure from numerous areas of the court. This was the first thing that Doc Rivers attributed the loss to in his postgame presser:
“It’s funny. Coming into this series, they said we couldn’t play defense. We did that in the first game. They said they couldn’t play defense. They did that in the second game. I thought it was more our offense versus their defense than the other way. They got out on breaks because of our offense. I thought their pressure took us out of sets. I thought we struggled execution-wise on the offensive end and I thought that bled over into the defensive end. I thought it was more our offense tonight. So, even in that stretch, came out, ran a play that we liked, and we just didn’t execute. So, we gotta handle that better.”
Will things change in Indianapolis? It remains to be seen, but given the extracurriculars we saw last night, I think the hard-fought action is going to continue.
At times, the Bucks looked lost and without energy.
This was the case numerous times throughout the second half. Indiana flexed their youth and athleticism throughout the night, but particularly in the third quarter, which was when they really began to pull ahead. At points, it seemed as if they were just running circles around the Bucks. It could’ve been just a symptom of Milwaukee’s age versus this talented and youthful Pacers squad, but it seemed the Bucks were just sleepwalking at points. Add in the fact that there were times where poor discipline impacted shots and you get a disastrous second-half for Milwaukee, which ultimately resulted in the loss.
This was the second time that Damian Lillard struggled in the second half.
Similar to Game 1, Dame came out of the gates scoring the basketball with ease. He knocked down threes and seemed like he was on the way to replicating his Game 1 performance. While he was just a point shy of matching his Game 1 output, he also struggled in the second half again. The Pacers’ defense really began to put pressure on him and it worked, forcing Milwaukee to look for offense in other areas of the floor. Postgame, Lillard spoke on what he attributed his second-half struggles to:
“I think they just picked up the pressure. They started to face guard and deny a little bit harder. And I just think we weren’t as organized as we needed to be when they defended that way. And our offense is struggling with our spacing…our pace sometimes…you gotta be focused. You gotta be able to execute through that, even when you’re tired. Even when a team is turning up the pressure, the physicality…and we struggled a little bit with that tonight. I think because of it our shot quality was low and against a team like this, you know they want to get the ball out and run, get up and get quick shots up. They play at an extremely high pace and I just thought the areas that we struggled in offensively really hurt our defense out there tonight. Just get out and play the way they’re comfortable and the way they wanna play and I think it showed when they kind of just jumped out and took that lead.”
If the Bucks are going to be without Giannis again in Game 3, it’s imperative that Dame is able to keep momentum going throughout all quarters of the game. The Pacers have shown that they’re more than capable to seize momentum if given the opportunity, and the Bucks can’t afford to give away opportunities in what’s going to be a raucous Indianapolis environment.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- This is troublesome to see:
Just asked Tyrese Haliburton @TyHaliburton22
about his trip to his home state of WI this time and well the answer wasn’t… great. Said his little brother was called a racist name in the stands…
“My little brother in the stands the other day was called the N-word”
More soon.— Lori Nickel (@LoriNickel) April 24, 2024
- Haliburton also tossed some shade at the Fiserv Forum crowd:
“We’ve had regular season crowds better than what we’ve played in the last two games.”
Tyrese Haliburton is looking forward to Game 3 in Indy pic.twitter.com/X1eYur62Mi
— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 24, 2024
- This seems to contradict what Haliburton said:
fiserv forum is so loud rick carlisle has to wear ear plugs lmaooo pic.twitter.com/jARu1XkrzS
— sydney fink (@sydn3yfink) April 24, 2024
- Bobby Portis also dished it out in his postgame availability:
Bucks forward Bobby Portis was asked about the physicality, trash talking and technical fouls tonight and whether he felt that was the Pacers way of getting themselves going on the road.
Here was his response: pic.twitter.com/Kj5aUBbmFH
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) April 24, 2024
- Khris Middleton got his right ankle re-taped in the first quarter. He then played 36 minutes on the night. Postgame, he told us that he’d be all good moving forward.
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