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

Pacers’ balance wins the day

All five Indiana starters scored in double figures this evening. Oladipo may be the headliner, but strong performances from Thaddeus Young (10 points, eight rebounds) and Myles Turner (13 points, nine rebounds) also stood out. Cory Joseph (12 points, 2-of-4 from deep) hit big shots in the second half. Bojan Bogdanovic put in a night of hard work, ending up with 14 points on just 1-of-4 from the field.

Pesky Lance Stephenson (16 points) can’t go without mention, either. He taught Sterling Brown a thing or two about getting feisty in the first, as the two agitators got into it, spurring a double technical foul call.

Domantas Sabonis (six points, nine rebounds) made his presence felt throughout the game as well. He played physical defense all night long, eventually fouling out in 20 minutes. He and Stephenson were largely responsible for giving the game a very chippy, playoff atmosphere.

Sometimes it is easy to forget that the Bucks still don’t have their full team in uniform. Sharpshooting forward Mirza Teletovic has yet to suit up in 2018. Second-year guard Malcolm Brogdon had been having an excellent sophomore campaign before falling to a quad injury. Backup point guard Matthew Dellevadova is injured as well.

Considering the thin roster and thinking about how taxing the minutes and scoring loads are on Giannis, Middleton, and Bledsoe, it is not hard to see where they would be prone to the varied, energetic attack of this Pacers team.

Then again, shouldn’t Milwaukee’s top-end talent have been enough to pull through against a team like Indiana? The Pacers, like other teams recently, helped prevent this from happening by playing smart defense against Giannis Antetokounmpo.