Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points and Bennedict Mathurin dropped 25 to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 122-113 win against the host Milwaukee Bucks on Monday night.
Haliburton and Mathurin each had a double-double, with Haliburton dishing out 11 assists and Mathurin grabbing 13 boards. Isaiah Jackson added 18 points and nine rebounds.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 30 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists for his third triple-double of the season. Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez each poured in 21 points, and Damian Lillard had 13 on a poor shooting night (3-for-16 overall).
It was a game of runs in the first half, with Milwaukee getting off to a strong start by going up by as many as 15 in the first quarter.
Whenever the Bucks punched, the Pacers punched back. Indiana ended the first quarter on an 11-3 run and took the lead in the second before Milwaukee scored seven of the final nine points of the first half to go into the break up 62-56.
Antetokounmpo had 16 points and eight boards in the first half to lead the Bucks. Mathurin paced Indiana with 12 points, while Haliburton had eight points and six assists.
Milwaukee used a 9-0 spurt in the third quarter to go back up by 15 at 82-67 following a jumper by Lillard, but when Mathurin sank a floater with 1:51 left in the period, the Pacers were within 84-80.
In the fourth, Indiana slowly pulled away. T.J. McConnell had 12 points in the quarter and Haliburton had nine, with the latter converting a three-point play with 1:20 remaining to give the Pacers a 116-109 advantage.
The Bucks got no closer than six the rest of the way.
The Pacers were able to stay in the game despite unusually poor shooting from deep. Indiana entered Monday’s contest with the second-best 3-point percentage in the NBA (39 percent), but it went just 5-for-35 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc against Milwaukee.
–Field Level Media