Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 103-96 loss to Indiana Pacers

Third quarter dooms Bucks

It started with the Bucks leading 46-45, and ended with the Bucks losing 78-67. What happened in the third quarter that ended up making the difference in this game?

With 7:00 remaining in the period, Milwaukee extended their lead to five on rookie Sterling Brown‘s only field goal of the night. Over the next minute-and-a-half, the Bucks went 0-of-2 with two turnovers, as Indiana scored four.

Enter Jabari Parker, who relieved Jason Terry. Oladipo promptly drained a three-pointer, giving the Pacers a 60-58 lead. The attempts to counter included two wayward jump shots from Giannis, and, in a truly dreadful moment, a terrible miss from Tyler Zeller from just inside the arc.

On the other hand, Indiana was getting good looks and making the most of them. Oladipo had a dominant span in which he had a layup, a dunk, and an assist to Cory Joseph for three which capped off the run.

Coach Prunty called timeout, and his team did manage to stabilize and prevent the Pacers from truly blowing them out. Yet, the damage was done. The Bucks were clearly demoralized, showing all kinds of poor body language as the third quarter wound down.

Looking back, it seems kind of strange that while all of this was going on, Parker (11 points on 5-of-12 in 25 minutes) did not have a shot attempt until there were just over two minutes left in the period.

Maybe he has some liability for the team’s inability to get stops during that span, but on the other hand he’s an offensive specialist on a minutes restriction. Parker should be a player that can power the Bucks through the doldrums on that end of the floor during games like these.