Haliburton receives assistance from Indiana’s reserves as the Pacers win 122-113, ending the Bucks’ home win streak.

The Indiana Pacers start 2024 with an excellent road win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Tyrese Haliburton believes the Indiana Pacers’ strongest asset is their depth.

 

That was certainly the case Monday night, when Indiana’s reserves led the Pacers to a 122-113 victory over Milwaukee, providing Haliburton with a happy homecoming and ending the Bucks’ 15-game Fiserv Forum win run.

Indiana overcame Giannis Antetokounmpo’s triple-double thanks to Haliburton’s 26 points, 11 assists, and nine rebounds. In bench points, the Pacers outscored the Bucks 70-16.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can contribute,” said Haliburton, who grew up about 90 miles north of Milwaukee in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. “That’s the best part about our team. Some nights, the starting lineup’s got it going. Nights like tonight, where we come out slow, our bench has to come in and kind of wake the game up.”

 

For Indiana, Bennedict Mathurin had 25 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, while Isaiah Jackson had 18 points and nine rebounds. Another reserve, T.J. McConnell, had 16 points and nine assists.

They helped the Pacers win despite shooting only 5 of 35 from 3-point range.

“I think we kind of hang our hat on getting a lot of 3’s up,” McConnell said. “When we make a lot of them, we’re pretty tough to beat. But when we don’t make them, it’s typically hard for us to win. I tip our cap to this group. We just found a way and adjusted to our cold-shooting night and got it done.”

Antetokounmpo recorded his 38th career triple-double, as well as his third this season, with 30 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists. In four meetings with Indiana this season, the two-time MVP is averaging 46.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists, but the Bucks are 1-3.

They’ll meet again in Indiana on Wednesday.

“We’ve got to figure it out,” stated Antetokounmpo. “You never know.” They could appear in the playoffs. We’ll definitely see them again in two days. At the end of the day, this improves us. It helps us grow. We need to go review the tapes and figure out what they do well against us so that we can stop it. And if we don’t stop it, we’ll most likely lose again.”

The Bucks’ Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton both scored 21 points. Damian Lillard scored 13 points while shooting 3 of 16 from the field and 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.

 

The Pacers fell behind by 15 points in the third quarter before recovering to grab a 90-89 lead with 10:12 remaining on a Jackson basket that capped a 19-5 run. The game remained close until McConnell scored six points during an 8-0 burst to give Indiana a 109-101 lead with 3:59 remaining.

After Middleton sank a 3-pointer to end the run, Haliburton answered with two consecutive jumpers to make the score 113-104. The Bucks scored five consecutive points to cut the advantage to 113-109, but Haliburton drove into the lane for a three-point play.

This allowed Indiana to maintain its lead in the series, but Haliburton is hesitant to call it a rivalry.

“That’s a team that’s competed for a championship for multiple years,” Haliburton went on to say. “We’re on the right track, but we haven’t arrived yet.” I have a lot of admiration for them as a group. I’m not sure I’d call it a rivalry just yet. But we’re going to compete regardless of who we’re up against, and we play these guys a lot during the season. When we see them, we’ll be ready.”

After the Pacers won their first two meetings with the Bucks, including an In-Season Tournament quarterfinal victory, Antetokounmpo established a franchise single-game record with 64 points against Indiana on Dec. 13.

After that Dec. 13 game, the teams got into a fight in a hallway leading to the Pacers’ locker room for the game ball.

“This is a game that everybody was prepared for and everybody was ready for,” Haliburton said in a statement. “I believe their words were that we weren’t physically prepared for them (after the previous matchup).” “I believe we were prepared today.”

Bruce Brown was out for the seventh straight game with a bone bruise in his right knee, and Andrew Nembhard played only eight minutes before exiting with a strained back. MarJon Beauchamp was out for the Bucks due to a non-COVID-19 sickness.