INDIANAPOLIS – Giannis Antetokounmpo slid to his right, arms raised, pinning Tyrese Haliburton between the three-point line and the boundary in front of the Bucks bench as the Indiana Pacers‘ point guard floated up a falling down three-pointer – and it found the bottom of the net.

A whistle blew. Haliburton smirked. The Pacers celebrated.

Antetokounmpo wanted a review of the foul called on him that would send Haliburton to the free throw line for a potential four-point play and the lead. Bucks head coach Doc Rivers did challenge – to see if Haliburton had been out of bounds – but the review was lost. Haliburton the made the free throw, and Antetokounmpo’s pull-up 28-footer at the buzzer missed its mark.

“I think there was a miscommunication on our coverage, he was able to get to the corner and knock down an incredible shot,” Antetokounmpo said “Gotta give him credit. That was pretty much it,”

BOX SCORE: Pacers 115, Bucks 114

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Those two costly mistakes helped lead to a 115-114 Bucks’ loss to the Pacers, one in which Rivers acknowledged “this was an awful loss for us. It really is. We got a day to get our senses back but these are games – you win one during the year, too – but these are games that just really haunt you.”

Haliburton finished with 14 points on just 5 of 12 shooting, including 2 of 6 from behind the three-point line. He also had 10 assists. Pascal Siakam led the Pacers with 25 points and 12 rebounds, as seven Indiana players reached double figures. Antetokounmpo had 19 points and 17 rebounds in the loss, and Damian Lillard had 15 points and 11 assists.

Bucks lose track of Haliburton on final play, review fails

The Bucks took a three-point lead thanks to two Damian Lillard free throws, setting up the final play where the Pacers inbounded near half court. The play began with four Pacers aligned like wide receivers, spread across the court. Haliburton then looped toward the ball around behind his three teammates, but Taurean Prince didn’t follow him across the court – and fellow Bucks Gary Trent Jr. and Kyle Kuzma sprinted the opposite direction with their own assignments.

“I’m supposed to stay with him,” Prince said. “I should’ve just stayed with him. I put that on me. A lot of other things we could’ve done better but that particular play, now that I look at it, I definitely should not have gave him so much room.”

Prince acknowledged there were several ways to defend that play, but “at the end of the day, if I stay with him, we force somebody else to shoot and who knows if that still goes in. I mean, he still made a tough-ass shot in my opinion. I still, as far as what I could have personally done better, I should have stayed connected to his body.”

It gave Haliburton an unimpeded lane to not only receive the inbound pass but shoot up the court and force Antetokounmpo to close.

“There’s nothing more that you can do on that play,” Antetokounmpo said. “It was a foul, as we saw on the replay. Either you take a step back and let him shoot it or you try to make it as tough as possible for him. Now that I think about it, maybe I should have taken a step back because if he had made it, we still go to overtime. But defensively, there’s nothing more you can do. It’s just try to get in front of him, makes an incredible shot. Just gotta give credit.”

Rivers said the play was blown from the beginning, but he didn’t want to use his final timeout to reset his defense in the event the Pacers scored. The timeout would’ve allowed the Bucks to advance the ball and draw up a play.

Haliburton did fall down to the side, but he was able to set his feet to get up a clean look in a mere five-tenths of a second over the outstretched 7-footer.

“There was no reason to switch and we just did,” Rivers said. “He was just open the whole play. So there was miscommunication there. I always think that’s on me and on my staff, not on our guys and we’ll have to figure it out. ‘Cause that’s a play that should never happen.”

Rivers ultimately decided to use that timeout anyway and challenged the call, as the Bucks felt Haliburton had been out of bounds. By losing the timeout, Milwaukee had to inbound the ball under their basket and go the length of the court to try and win the game.

“I gotta trust my guys,” Rivers said. “That’s why we took so long (to decide) because we had a timeout and I said ‘are we 100% sure’ and they were very sure he stepped out of bounds. I guess we were wrong. That can’t happen. On challenges at the end of the game, you gotta know. You gotta get it right. ‘Cause give us three seconds to score down one. Those are two mistakes by us and we lost the game because of it.”

Bucks, Pacers on playoff course again

The Bucks fell to 36-28 while the Pacers improved to 36-28.

The two teams finish their regular season series Saturday at Fiserv Forum. They played one another last season in the first round, with the fifth-seeded Pacers winning in six games over the fourth-seeded Bucks. For their part, the Bucks are keeping a “one game at a time” mentality, as Prince said he didn’t know they were playing Indiana on Saturday and Antetokounmpo was quick to point out the Bucks play the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.

“Obviously they’re a team that we might face in the playoffs and if we have home court advantage it would be nice,” Antetokounmpo said. “But it won’t be the end of the world. We had home court advantage last year and we lost. I’ve had home court advantage in the playoffs and lost many times. I’ve not had home court advantage and I’ve won. So, at the end of the day, we’ll worry about Thursday and try to get back on track and when Saturday comes, Saturday morning I’m going to focus on Indiana.”

Brook Lopez put Bucks in position to win late

The Bucks had rallied from 10 points down late in the fourth quarter to take a lead and center Brook Lopez was a major factor in the comeback, scoring 11 fourth quarter points and playing stellar team defense as the Pacers tried to tie the game in the final seconds. First, Lopez helped out Damian Lillard on a mismatch on Pascal Siakam and then the Bucks’ big center closed out strong on back-to-back possessions to help force two missed three-pointers by Indiana.

“He’s more of a threat. Obviously he’s gonna space the floor — he’s one of the best bigs in the league doing that. But gotta mix it up. Sometimes gotta roll, sometimes gotta space the floor, but he’s such an incredible basketball player, he’s so smart, he knows when to pick and choose and when to do each. But the majority of the time, when the big is trying to play up that much and kind of hedge (the screen), he’s wide open on the back side. Then, he can come in, shoot his floater, which I think is very, very efficient. Or, he can read the weak side, the cutter, the guy cuts, go throw the ball in the corner. But, we need him to do both.”

Lopez scored 23 points on 9 of 11 shooting and also pulled down seven rebounds for Milwaukee.

“We were just doing a great job of playing together, moving the ball. It’s a lot of stuff we worked on in shootaorund this morning and it just happened to be me a couple of times to finish the possession. But everyone was doing a great job of that. We had a lot of people hit big shots.”

Pacers take advantage of Bucks’ backup bigs

The Bucks consider forward Kyle Kuzma a “big,” as he does measure 6 feet, 9 inches with a 7-foot wingspan, but paired with 6-10 Jericho Sims against Indiana’s Siakam (6-8) and Myles Turner (6-11) to begin the fourth quarter the Bucks were taken advantage of inside.

Siakam and Turner scored all 11 of Indiana’s points in the opening 2:55 of the frame, breaking an 88-88 tie and leading the Pacers to a 99-93 lead. Lopez subbed in for Sims at the 9:05 mark but then TJ McConnell pushed AJ Green into the paint for a bucket and an eight-point lead. Antetokounmpo checked in for Kuzma at the 8:17 mark and promptly turned it over as McConnell beat Green to the ball and suddenly the Pacers were up 103-93 with 8:08 to go in the game.

For the game, the Bucks were outscored by 18 points when Kuzma was on the court and by 17 when Sims was on the court.

After the two were subbed out, Lopez scored seven straight points and Siakam turned the ball over and had a shot rejected by Antetokounmpo and the Bucks eventually evened the scoreboard at 103 with 5:34 to go.

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo will play and is starting as he’s continuing to manage his recovery from a left calf strain. He has been on a minutes restriction since the all-star break.

Did you notice?

Doc Rivers has begun to change up his rotations and he staggered Antetokounmpo and Lillard’s minutes in the early going. Lillard subbed out about halfway through the first quarter (he played all 12 first quarter minutes vs. Cleveland on Sunday) and the two stars spent more time with bench units.

Gary Trent Jr. had his time adjusted as well, starting the second and fourth quarters.

Then with 4:28 to go in the game and the Bucks down 105-103, Lillard subbed out for Kevin Porter Jr. In that span the Pacers got a wide-open, catch-and-shoot three from Andrew Nembhard and then Haliburton stole a Porter pass and broke away for a dunk and a 110-105 lead when Lillard checked back in with 3:07 to go.

Trent then closed the game for Milwaukee.

Five numbers

• 6: Consecutive Central Division championships the Bucks had won before Cleveland captured their first title since the Cavaliers had won four in a row from 2014-18. The division champion receives the Wayne Embry Trophy, which is named after the groundbreaking former Bucks player and general manager.
• 12: First quarter Indiana points scored off Bucks turnovers and second-chance opportunities. The Pacers took a 32-28 lead after one. The Bucks also had a 12-0 run in the heart of the second quarter to erase an 11-point deficit and reset the game.
• 18: Points for Taurean Prince, his most since scoring 19 on Feb. 10. It was tied for the third-most points he’s scored in a game this season (his season-high is 23, reached on Nov. 16).
• Prince: “A lot of trust in that pin down, that (dribble handoff) with me and Giannis. I think that’s kind of what got us, not got us in a good rhythm, but kept us in a good rhythm and finding different layers off of that. I think Dame and Giannis obviously played to our ability. We could’ve won the game. Everybody played to the standard where we could’ve won the game. It just came down to one shot and a (expletive) way to lose, though, for sure.
• 32: Assists on 43 field goals for the Bucks, got back to moving the ball in a faster pace than their previous two losses to Orlando and Indiana.
• 14-17: Bucks record on the road, but they are 5-3 in their last seven away from Fiserv Forum. The Bucks are currently the only playoff team (a top six seed) in the Eastern Conference with a losing mark on the road, and they have not been .500 away from Fiserv Forum this season since starting the year 1-1 on Oct. 27. They were 18-22 on the road last season. From 2018-23 they were one of the best teams on the road in the NBA, compiling a 123-74 (62.4%) record away from Milwaukee.

Pat Connaughton about ready to return after calf strain

During an 11-minute stint against Washington on Feb. 21, Pat Connaughton suffered what he called a Grade 2 strain in his left calf, which sidelined him up until he was upgraded to questionable to play vs. Indiana on Tuesday night. The 32-year-old had been trying manage and/or play through discomfort in that calf since early February.

“As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized ‘managing’ calf strains is not a recipe for success in the long run,” he said. “So yeah, it was unfortunate.

“It was something that for me was disappointing. You try to figure out why, you try to figure out how to prevent it in the future, but mostly just try to figure out how to make sure that my normal mindset and sentiment of playing through injury isn’t going to put me in a position to have to deal with it on into playoffs like last year and try to make sure when I come back I’m fresh and ready to come back and I’m not trying to push it to come back where there is still some feeling and some discomfort in it.”

Before suffering his initial injury, he had played eight straight games off the bench from Jan. 23-Feb. 5 and was shooting 50% from the field overall and behind the three-point line.

Connaughton did not play vs. the Pacers as he still wanted to see how he was going to feel after pregame, but the upgrade in his status signaled that he is about ready to contribute after taking time to heal.

He credited the Bucks training staff for putting his muscle through different treatments to not only get him back but, “get me out there and fresh, actually explosive, moving, not favoring it, thinking about it, having awareness in it throughout the game. The NBA is hard enough, right? You don’t want to have your mind half or 20% on something that’s a lingering issue.”

Is Giannis playing?

What channel is the Bucks game on?

The game will be simulcast nationally on TNT/truTV/Max with Brian Anderson, Reggie Miller and Allie LaForce on the call.

What time is the Bucks game?

The game will tip off at 6:30 p.m. CT.

Bucks injury report

• Bobby Portis Jr., out (league suspension)
• Chris Livingston, out (non-COVID illness)
• Tyler Smith, out (back spasms)
• Pat Connaughton, questionable (left calf strain)
• Pete Nance, questionable (left ankle sprain)
• Giannis Antetokounmpo, probable (left calf strain)
• Damian Lillard, probable (right groin soreness)

Bucks starting lineup

• Guards: Damian Lillard, Taurean Prince
• Forwards: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma
• Center: Brook Lopez

Bucks vs. Pacers odds, over/under

Milwaukee is a 3.5-point favorite over Indiana, and the over/under is set at 234.5 points per BetMGM.