The Indiana Pacers undefeated run through the NBA’s In-Season Tournament continued with another upset victory on Thursday with a 128-119 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They’ll face the Los Angeles Lakers for the first IST Championship in NBA Histort on Saturday at 8:30 p.m.
The Pacers won despite making only 21.2% of their 3-point attempts, normally a recipe for defeat for the upstart offensive juggernaut that struggles to defend and rebound. But the Pacers shot 62.3% on their 2-point shot attempts, won the rebounding battle 51-46, held the Bucks to 44.8% shooting, and the bench dominated the opposing second unit, outscoring the Bucks reserves 43-9.
The Pacers took the Bucks best punch in the third quarter when they quickly erased a 12-point halftime lead behind a barrage of 3-pointers from Damian Lillard, who struggled in the first half with just 4 points on 2-of-10 shooting. 25-9 in six minutes as the Bucks got hot and the Pacers continued their cold shooting. The Bucks tried to break their rhythm with a zone defense and while it worked in that the Pacers continued to miss most of their 3-pointers, they eventually did enough by working the middle of the zone, especially with Andrew Nembhard.
There were contributions from everyone who played for the Pacers in this game. Each of the 10 guys had their moments in a tough win. Let’s dive into the grades and add a gif that best sums up that player’s performance.
Tyrese Haliburton: A+
There aren’t enough words, gifs, emojis, pictographs, musical notes, smoke signals, and whatever other modes of communication in the world to adequately describe the meteoric rise Tyrese Haliburton has been on during this tournament. It’s historic. It’s incredible to watch. Somehow as the best passer in the league, he still manages to surprise with his unbelievable processing, decision making, and sheer skill.
How does a guy that makes the pass above and the pass below also have zero turnovers? It does not compute that a player that plays with such pizazz and flash with high-risk passes also takes perfect care of the basketball on so many nights.
“He’s definitely the best passer in the game right now,” Obi Toppin said. “Having the opportunity to play with him is amazing because like I said, he wants to see everybody win. He’s going to get his, obviously, but he wants to see other guys on his team win, as well, and that’s what makes us so special.”
GIF GRADE:
Myles Turner: A+
“It feels damn good,” Turner said of how it feels to be a part of this rising Pacers team after years of trade rumors and playing out of position. “I’m not going to lie. It’s been a lo)ng time coming because I know what this organization is capable of, and just to have Indy to have their guy (Haliburton) and just have a great bench and great depth, I couldn’t be happier.”
Turner always gets good looks against the Milwaukee Bucks drop defense as they tend to try to live with whatever a shooting big man does. While Turner couldn’t capitalize on his outside shot very often at just 2 for 8, he was a monster when he rolled to the basket and challenged Brook Lopez at the rim repeatedly. He had three forceful dunks including a poster on Giannis Antetokounmpo and two over Lopez.
He made 7 of his 10 shots inside the arc and got to the free throw line for 8 attempts, finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks, and a steal.
“Myles Turner has been around nine years, but he’s still 27 years old. He’s still a young player,” Carlisle said after the game. “Myles was here when some of the veteran teams were in the Playoffs. He got a taste of it. He’s really longed for this kind of feeling, these kinds of meaningful games.”
It was the third straight double double for Turner whose rim protection showed up in key moments. All three of his blocks also resulted in Turner rebounds and a change of possession, one of which was a block on an alley oop attempt on a baseline-out-of-bounds play for Giannis with Turner as his primary defender. After stopping the oop, he did enough to force a rare missed layup. He executed another lob pass to Obi Toppin in this game that got the Pacers scoring started.
GIF:
Andrew Nembhard: A
Nembhard got hurt on a fast break layup where he hyperextended his knee. He was up and walking with a sleeve on his leg during practice on Friday, rebounding for teammates. While he’ll unfortunately miss the championship game, he hopefully won’t be out for too much of an extended period as Carlisle says they are hopeful that they “dodged a bullet.”
He was a game changer on both ends in the third quarter, playing fantastic defense against Damian Lillard, as he cooled him off after his hot start to the second half. Nembhard played 12 straight minutes and Lillard scored only 2 points (both free throws) during that stretch until the play he was injured where he immediately scored on a 4-on-5 possession. Before he had come into the game, Lillard had scored 14 points in six minutes. He wasn’t the only defender on Lillard after he came in but he deserves a ton of credit for not letting that hot streak continue as Lillard played the remainder of that third quarter and was only out for two minutes in the fourth before returning. In those two minutes with Lillard on the bench, he made plays like this guarding Khris Middleton off the ball.
He was the Pacers zone buster when they were struggling to make outside shots. Nemby was the player repeatedly cutting to the middle of the zone and hitting his favorite jump shot around the elbows or just below the free throw line. He was 4 for 5 for 8 points, 2 assists, a steal, and a block. The Pacers don’t win this game without him but they’ll have to on Saturday.
GIF:
Aaron Nesmith: A-
Aaron Nesmith is having a moment of his own during this tournament with his aggressive defense on full display over the last two games, showing his value as an energetic defender. He hassled Antetokounmpo into a turnover in the first half, took a charge from Brook Lopez, pestered Khris Middleton to the point of nearly getting him to commit an offensive foul, used his own fouls wisely except for his 5th foul on an offensive rebound attempt, and did everything a 6’5” guy could possibly do against the Greek Freak. He had a block against Lillard that was nasty in the fourth quarter.
He struggled offensively as his shot looked a little out of rhythm on some bad misses on 1 of 4 from deep. The one name was a big one at the end of the third quarter. His box score is unspectacular (6 points, a rebound, an assist, and a block) but you couldn’t watch that game without seeing his impact defensively. Pacers outscored the Bucks by +16 in his minutes. He split the four minutes with Toppin who was -7. The final margin in the game the same as the margin between the two forwards. His other made shot came in the fourth quarter where he drove and finished with a lefty floater through contact to get the and-1 basket over Lopez.
GIF:
- Morgan Freeman = Bucks coach Adrian Griffin
- The Messiah = Giannis
- The reporter: Chris Haynes breaking the news about Bobby Portis airing his grievances
- The meteor = the Indiana Pacers. The meteor wins at the end of the movie, right?
T.J. McConnell: A
McConnell has been unbelievable in both of the last two games, making play after play. In 11 minutes, the Pacers outscored the Bucks by 9 with him on the floor. He added 9 points, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a single rebound that came off of a tip-in from a missed 3 as McConnell took advantage of the Bucks 2-3 zone to make himself available for the rebound.
“T.J. just inspires me, he inspires his teammates with the way he plays, his passion,” Carlisle said. “He’s a little unconventional with his style of play, but he’s very difficult to deal with. He was great in the first half and made huge plays in the second half. I thought his tip-in was one of the highlights of the season.”
The refs sapped his magic with a couple of questionable traveling violations, one of which the official NBA officials account admitted that they missed.
After the Pacers fell behind 29-23, McConnell led a 17-5 run and really shifted the momentum in the second quarter. In that stretch he scored or assisted on 13 of the 17 points, scoring on his usual fading middy or reverse layups over Giannis, gifting an easy basket to Bennedict Mathurin who was struggling to make anything in this one, and getting dubbed the Pacer Pest by Reggie Miller on the broadcast after hustling to get behind Middleton for a steal.
GIF:
Isaiah Jackson: A
Isaiah Jackson hasn’t played a ton since Jalen Smith went down with an injury in a combination of dealing with an illness and the Pacers electing to utilize a small lineup with Toppin at the 5. He was needed against the Bucks and had one of his best games in the NBA with 11 points (5 for 7) and 5 rebounds in 16 minutes.
He finished chances inside off after rolling to the basket and got an easy transition dunk off of a made basket where the Bucks defense was sleeping as he beat Bobby Portis down the floor and just ran right by a sleeping Dame and Giannis straight through the paint for the slam after Haliburton threw the hit-ahead pass. He got a steal by just ripping the ball away from Portis after a rebound and perhaps most importantly played solid defense while only committing a single foul.
GIF:
Obi Toppin: B+
Offensively, Toppin was fantastic. He beat the Bucks defense down the floor on numerous occasions including one that was about three seconds after another Bucks made basket where he finished with a nice reverse layup.
On the alley oop that he finished from the Haliburton half-court lob, he said he didn’t think he was going to be able to finish off the catch until he looked back and decided to try it. His athleticism pops a few times a night on that end. He also grabbed three offensive rebounds including one for a tip dunk in the 4th. Defensively, this was not a great night for him as he didn’t fair well matching up against Giannis or Middleton. He finished with 14 points (6 of 8), 6 rebounds, and 2 assists.
GIF:
Bruce Brown: B+
Brown’s box score doesn’t look great as he scored 10 points (3 of 9) with 3 rebounds and 3 assists but two of his made shots were timely floaters in the lane that helped the Pacers attack the Bucks zone. He also had 2 missed layups late in the fourth that were both tipped in by teammates. One by Turner to put the Pacers up 3 and then Brown stole a pass on the next possession with just over two minutes left in the game, missed the layup and Hield tipped it in. Prefer he’d just make the shots but Pacers don’t get those points without his aggressiveness going to the rim. That steal gave the Pacers a little cushion during crunch time.
GIF:
Buddy Hield: B
Buddy Hield found ways to contribute when his 3-pointer wasn’t falling! He went 0 for 6 from deep including one wide open look that had him screaming a curse word that could be heard on the broadcast. How did Hield find a way to help the team win? Rebounding. Hield had 11 rebounds to lead the team including four offensive boards. He’s a big reason the Pacers won the rebounding battle in this game. He didn’t play great defense but did add two steals and a block.
Bennedict Mathurin: C+
Mathurin couldn’t buy a bucket for much of the game and got blocked on numerous attempts close to the rim. He did hit a key shot to start the fourth quarter scoring as he hit a long two with his foot on the line. His play of the game was a block on Cam Payne that resulted in a transition layup for Nembhard. He led the team in plus/minus at +17 despite making only 3 of 12 shots. He didn’t stick out for a ton of miscues on the defensive end and he stayed aggressive despite the lack of shots falling in this one. There were a couple of fast break chances that he’d like to have back after being unable to gather a pass that would have gifted him two points on one play. He finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds, and an assist.
iPacers 