After a fierce battle in the semifinals of the in-season tournament in Las Vegas, the Milwaukee Bucks will once again face off against the visiting Indiana Pacers on Wednesday in what projects to be another high-scoring affair.
Both teams are coming off hard-fought wins on Monday night, with Milwaukee needing overtime to take down the visiting Chicago Bulls 133-129.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way with 32 points while both Brook Lopez and Malik Beasley added 19. Notably, Khris Middleton led the way with 13 rebounds, edging Antetokounmpo by one.
“Every time we thought we had (the Bulls) down, they would claw their way back in the game,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said. “But when we needed to get stops, we got stops.”
Indiana, after falling short of the in-season tournament championship against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, took down Detroit on the road on Monday, 131-123, to hand the Pistons their 20th consecutive loss.
Bennedict Mathurin took on the scoring load for Indiana, coming off the bench and scoring 30 points while also dishing eight assists. Myles Turner added 23 points and eight boards, and Tyrese Haliburton dished 16 assists to go with his 14 points.
“This is one of the most difficult games you can have coming off the emotions of last week, the game Saturday, the travel,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “I thought our guys did a great job of staying together, keeping their composure and their aggression.”
Milwaukee is led by Antetokounmpo with 30.6 points and 10.7 rebounds per night, respectively. Damian Lillard is adding 25 points and seven assists per night, while Brook Lopez continues to lead the NBA with 2.8 blocks per game.
Haliburton leads Indiana with 26.3 points and paces NBA with 12.3 assists per game (the next closest is Atlanta’s Trae Young with 10.5 per game). Turner leads Indiana down low with eight rebounds and just more than two blocks a night.
In terms of team offense, it doesn’t get better in the NBA than this matchup.
The Pacers and Bucks are the top two scoring teams in the league through Monday at 128.5 and 122.6 points per game, respectively.
Indiana also leads the league in team assists per game (30.3) and field-goal percentage (51 percent), with the Bucks (49.8 percent) close behind in the latter category.
The Pacers have finally begun to turn the tide in this division rivalry, winning the first two matchups against Milwaukee this season after the Bucks had a 10-game win streak against Indiana snapped last season.
The Pacers won at home 126-124 on Nov. 9, then 128-119 in Las Vegas on Dec. 7. Haliburton played like a star in the latter game, scoring 27 while also racking up 15 assists. Turner put forth a 26-point, 10-rebound double-double as well.
The teams will wrap up their season series with back-to-back games on Jan. 1 and 3. Indiana has a chance to clinch their first season-series victory over Milwaukee since the 2017-18 season with a win on Wednesday.
–Field Level Media