Tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference, the Indiana Pacers and Bucks look for another “moment” when they meet in Milwaukee on Saturday night.
It will be the fourth — and final — regular-season meeting between the two teams who are each 37-28. The two teams met on Tuesday with the Pacers winning on an incredible four-point play by All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton with 3.4 seconds left.
After that shot, Haliburton was asked about the parallel to the late-game heroics by Pacers legend Reggie Miller.
“There’s definitely a lot of Reggie moments in this building,” Haliburton said. “And you know, I’m just trying to create some of my own. A big part of being a representative of this organization is that I follow in the footsteps of a lot of greats. And, you know, [I’m] trying to create my own path behind that … Just trying to create my own moments so that the same way that kids and fans looked up to him when he was here, they can look at me the same way.”
Haliburton had 14 points in the Pacers 112-100 win in Philadelphia Friday night. The short-handed Sixers led by as many as 16 points before Indiana surged in the second half.
Pascal Siakam, who was questionable before the game with a bad elbow, had 27 points in the win.
“I can come up with a lot of reasons why we had a slow start. Nobody wants to hear it,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “We need to compete better right off the bat to start the game. The second half was how we needed to play.”
Milwaukee ended a three-game losing streak Thursday night over the LeBron-less Lakers. Giannis Antetokounmpo played only 30 minutes in the win and had 24 points. He remains the NBA’s second leading scorer behind Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at 30.5 points a game.
“We’re a veteran team,” said Damian Lillard, who had 22 against the Lakers. “You have to be able to move on from those moments where it’s like âman, if we would’ve done this or we would’ve done that then we win for sure two out of those three games.’ But I think we showed our maturity. We showed what a veteran team should show.”
Brook Lopez has put up two big games in a row, scoring 23 in each. He’s 17-20 from the field in his last two contests.
“Brook has been playing really well,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “We got him in a great place right now, he defends the basket as well as anybody in the league.”
Antetokounmpo, who committed the foul on Haliburton’s four-point play, has averaged only 24.5 in his career against Indiana.
For Milwaukee, it’s been a season with adversity. The team started 2-8, and is without Bobby Portis who has been suspended for using an illegal medication until April 8.
“When we move the ball, it’s hard to guard us,” Rivers said. “We have so much shooting on the floor. We have great cutters, when we do that consistently…we had 20-plus assists tonight. We will take that every night.”
The Bucks are 8-4 since the All-Star break and 23-11 this season at Fiserv Forum. Indiana is 4-6 in back-to-back games this season. Milwaukee leads the season series 2-1.
