All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton wanted to reinforce that Indiana’s success against Milwaukee was not a fluke.
So on Wednesday night, the rising young star made sure of that again.
Haliburton had 31 points and 12 assists and scored 47 points in the third quarter to lead the Pacers past the Bucks 142–130 for their fifth consecutive win. It was Haliburton’s 18th game with at least 20 points and 10 assists, the most by a Pacers player in a season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
“I think as a young group when you play good teams, you want to be as prepared as you can for them,” Haliburton said. “But I think part of the maturity of this group is to continue to have that competitiveness and be ready for games that aren’t against the Bucks.”
It has been an unbalanced series this season. Just two days after ending Milwaukee’s 15-game home-court winning streak, the Pacers started the second half on a 21–6 run and never trailed. The Pacers are 4-1 against the Bucks this season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for Milwaukee, which fell just short of his fourth triple-double this season. Damian Lillard added 23 points and five assists, and Khris Middleton overcame a right wrist sprain and right knee soreness to add 19 points and seven assists.
This has been a frustrating series for the Bucks.
Playing five times in 54 days, the Central Division foes have become painfully familiar – including the in-season tournament semifinals in Las Vegas. A total of at least 247 points have been scored in four games.
“I think the shame is we’re much better than what we’ve shown in games against them,” Lillard said. “I don’t even look at it like, ‘Oh, it’s just the regular season.’ We wanted to win this game.”
The end results were only part of what defined the series. It became emotional and sometimes even irritable.
A controversy over a lost game ball led to a bizarre scene after a game in December when Antetokounmpo quickly walked toward the Indiana locker room. Bucks forward Bobby Portis was ejected from one game, and in Las Vegas, Haliburton drew the ire of some people for imitating Lillard by pointing to his wrist after making a late 3-pointer, as the Bucks finished Were going to happen.
The final regular season game of this series added fuel to the fire.
Indiana fans repeatedly counted down the seconds it took for Antetokounmpo to shoot free throws, the Milwaukee bench was called for a technical in the third quarter, and Lillard and Benedict Mathurin were talking between the third and fourth quarters. Mathurin had 16 points.
This followed a foul-prone fourth, when Pacers swingman Buddy Hield lofted a pass off the backboard to running back Isaiah Jackson for a dunk, making the score 118–100 with 9:41 to play and after a Milwaukee timeout. Antetokounmpo was given a tough fight. Base. Players gathered near the basket, and after an official review for hostile acts, Milwaukee rookies Andre Jackson Jr. and Obi Toppin were both assessed technical fouls.
But the difference in this game was Indiana’s third quarter explosion.
Milwaukee emerged with a 68–66 lead after consistently trailing in the first half, but the Pacers started the second half with a 21–6 run to extend the lead to 113–97 after three quarters, and the Bucks were unable to regain the lead. Could. Rest of the game close to 10.
“I’ll just say we did a good job of digging in and getting stops when we needed to.” Haliburton said. “When we play in transition, we’re a really tough team to beat.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
