INDIANAPOLIS — Pascal Siakam scored 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting to lead the Pacers to a 117-98 win over the Bucks in Game 1 of the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The No. 4 seed Pacers take a 1-0 lead on the No. 5 seed Bucks heading into Game 2 at 7 p.m., Tuesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Pacers center Myles Turner added 19 points, hit four 3-pointers, grabbed five rebounds and recorded four blocks. Guard Andrew Nembhard scored 17 points and dished out five assists. Guard Bennedict Mathurin scored 13 points off the bench. Point guard Tyrese Haliburton scored just 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting, including 0-of-7 from 3, but posted 12 assists against one turnover. Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 36 points and 12 rebounds. Guard A.J. Green scored 15 points off the bench for the Bucks.
Pacers shut down everyone but Giannis Antetokounmpo
Antetokounpo might be the NBA’s most unstoppable force. Because of the sensational seasons of Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver’s Nikola Jokic, the two-time MVP is unlikely to receive the award for the third time this year but he’ll be first-team All-NBA for a seventh straight season because it remains nearly impossible to keep the 6-11, 242-pounder away from the rim.
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So the Pacers entered Saturday’s game with an understanding they couldn’t keep him quiet as a scorer. But what they didn’t want to do was commit too many bodies to stopping him to allow them to pick them apart by finding open shooters for 3s as the Bucks led the NBA in regular season 3-point percentage. With Damian Lillard out for most of the season’s last month, Antetokounmpo operated as de facto point guard and he posted double-figure assists in five of his last six regular season games.
The Pacers’ strategy worked according to plan. Antetokounmpo was dominant as usual, scoring 36 points on 14-of-23 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds. However, he struggled at the free throw line, making just 8-of-15 foul shots and he finished with just one assist. The Bucks made just 2-of-16 first-half 3s and finished 9-of-37 from beyond the arc. They shot 41.7% from the floor and finished with 1.00 points per possession. Their other four starters scored a total of 14 points as wings Kyle Kuzma and Taurean Prince were both scoreless.
Andrew Nembhard gets his shot back
The Pacers asked a lot from Nembhard all year, particularly on the defensive end. Every night, the third-year guard was asked to take on the NBA’s best perimeter players and more often than not was asked to apply full-court pressure to ball-handlers. He did it well enough to make a fringe All-Defensive team case. Largely because of him, the Pacers’ defense that was among the worst in the NBA in both 2022-23 and 2023-24 posted a top-10 defensive rating from Jan. 1 on.
That being said, the defensive workload asked a lot out of his legs and it showed in his offense. He shot just 26.1% from 3-point range after the All-Star break and in his last three regular season games he scored a total of nine points on 3-of-23 shooting. He was 2-of-18 from 3-point range in the season’s last six games.
The week of rest for the play-in round seemed to serve him very well, and much as he did last year he took advantage of the Bucks making other members of the Pacers their defensive priorities. He attacked off the bounce right out of the gate and scored eight points in less than eight first-quarter minutes on 4-of-5 shooting, so more field goals than he had in those last three regular season games. By halftime he had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting and he finished with 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting including 1-of-3 from 3-point range.
Bennedict Mathurin, Jarace Walker bring it in first meaningful playoff action
Mathurin and Walker were the Pacers’ two highest draft picks since 1989 with Mathurin going No. 6 in 2022 and Walker No. 8 in 2023, but last season in the Pacers’ return to the playoffs after a three-year absence they didn’t have much in the way of meaningful minutes between them. Mathurin missed the entire postseason with a torn labrum suffered in March and Walker was limited to garbage-time minutes, playing a grand total of 31 minutes in nine playoff appearances.
Both players featured prominently in Saturday’s rotation as the first wings off the bench and made the most of the opportunity, bringing the kind of production they were drafted for.
Mathurin was aggressive off the bounce on the offensive end and opportunistic on defense, creating transition opportunities and drawing contact on the way to the rim. He scored 13 points, making all eight of his free throw attempts. He also recorded five rebounds .
The 6-7, 235-pound Walker made more of an impact on the defensive end and on the glass, bringing the length, versatility and muscle the Pacers liked in him at Houston. He grabbed five rebounds, recorded a steal and also played sturdy defense on Antetokounmpo whenever given the assignment. He hit a 3-pointer on offense and was +4 in his minutes.
