(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. The Indiana Pacers have eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks 4-1 and will advance to the second rounds of the NBA playoffs.
The win was supplied by, naturally, Tyrese Haliburton, who put the Pacers ahead with 1.3 seconds on the clock.
It took an epic comeback and an epic collapse to get there. The Pacers were down by as many as 20 points in regulation and by seven points with 40 seconds left in overtime. Then everything went right. Andrew Nembhard made a 3-pointer and Gary Trent Jr., who had shot the Bucks to that advantage, committed a galling turnover.
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That left Haliburton with the opportunity to be the hero.
Before the turnover, Trent was looking like the man of the moment. He missed seven straight 3-pointers to start the game, then made eight of his last nine, including four in overtime to silence a Pacers crowd that ended up having a little more noise in it at the end.
The Bucks were playing without Damian Lillard, the first of many such games as the All-NBA guard recovers from a torn Achilles in Game 4. Trent helped fill the gap with 33 points, while Giannis Antetokounmpo, with his responsibilities even larger, supplied a triple double with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists.
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Haliburton had 26 point on 10-of-22 shooting with six assists and five rebounds.
The fourth quarter saw sizable swings for both teams. The Pacers had a lead, then back-to-back 3-pointers from Gary Trent Jr. and A.J. Green plus an Antetokounmpo and-1 put them up four with less than a minute left.
Haliburton took over from there, drawing and making two free throws then landing the game-tying dunk with 10.8 seconds left. Antetokounmpo missed a would-be game-winner as time expired.
The Pacers will advance to face the Cleveland Cavaliers, who swept the Miami Heat in overwhelming fashion, in the second round.
There appeared to be some hard feelings after the game, as Antetkounmpo got forehead-to-forehead with Haliburton’s father then was involved in a wider scrum on the court.
That’s probably not how the Bucks envisioned the final moments of their season.
If the Bucks had a hangover from the Lillard news, they didn’t show it at the start of the game. Playing in front of a hostile Indiana crowed, Milwaukee opened the game on a 13-0 run and finished the first quarter leading 30-13.
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Haliburton was scoreless, while Antetokounmpo had seven points, two rebounds and two assists in eight minutes.
It’s hard to keep a team with an offense like the Pacers’ down, though. A lead that peaked at 20 points dwindled to six at halftime and was fully erased early in the third quarter. Milwaukee can at least boast it was nowhere close to this playoffs’ most mortifying 20-point blown lead after losing a star point guard.
It really can’t be emphasized enough how bad it’s looking for the Bucks after losing Lillard.
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The team’s entire long-term plan, to both win and keep Antetokounmpo was happy, was built around pairing Lillard with the Greek Freak. The duo never delivered on the potential of combining two All-NBA talents, but this is an entirely different franchise when it can’t count on Lillard to play next year.
At 34 years old — 35 by the time the next season starts — Lillard is nowhere close to guaranteed to be the same again. What will stay in place though is his $54.1 million cap hit for next season, plus a $58.1 million player option for 2026-27, which he appears likely to take.
It’s laudable the Bucks played a competitive game after taking that blow and already being down 3-1, but they now have an uncomfortable offseason ahead of them as they try to figure out a path back to contending to the East, with the possibility of it all falling apart should Antetkounmpo decide he wants out.
