The Indiana Pacers appeared like a workforce that was new to playoff basketball in Sport 1 of their sequence towards the Milwaukee Bucks, because the league’s most dynamic offense was caught within the mud en path to a 109-94 loss. That wasn’t the case in Sport 2, because the Pacers rode an enormous night time from Pascal Siakam to a 125-108 win over the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks to even issues up of their sequence.
For the second sport in a row, Siakam was nothing in need of good. The workforce’s high-profile midseason acquisition had his second consecutive 30-point double-double as he went for 37 factors on 16-for-23 capturing with 11 rebounds and 6 assists in 37 minutes of labor.
Particularly, Siakam’s huge night time was buoyed by Myles Turner’s 22 factors on 9-for-15 capturing and a 20-point night time by Andrew Nembhard, who went 8-for-11 from the sphere. As a workforce, Indiana’s offense was capable of get right into a rhythm that it simply couldn’t discover in Sport 1. Whereas Tyrese Haliburton as soon as once more was extra of a distributor than a scorer — he has 12 factors on 4-for-10 capturing with 12 assists — the Pacers as a workforce shot 50-for-90 (55.6 %) from the sphere and 16-for-36 (44.4 %) from three, which served as a reminder of the various common season conferences between these two groups the place Indiana often received good take care of good look towards the Bucks protection.
Milwaukee, however, struggled to maintain up with Indiana — whereas the Bucks actually appeared extra comfy within the half court docket, the Pacers have been deadly after they have been capable of get out and run. The protection, which Doc Rivers was employed to repair, received carved up, and whereas Milwaukee scored another level than it did in Sport 1, the lack to get stops was an excessive amount of to beat with out Antetokounmpo. If there was a silver lining, it’s that for the second sport in a row, Damian Lillard had a giant night time, with 34 factors on 10-for-21 capturing from the sphere and 6-for-13 from three. The Bucks additionally received a giant night time from Brook Lopez, who scored 22 factors and hit six of his seven triples.
Because the saying goes, a sequence doesn’t begin till a highway workforce wins a sport, and now, the Pacers get to carry their heads up excessive understanding that issues are all evened up as issues shift to Indianapolis. Whereas we’ll have to attend and see if Antetokounmpo is ready to play in both sport that can happen at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Sport 3 will happen on Friday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. EST on ESPN.
