The Indiana Pacers go as Tyrese Haliburton goes. He’s their engine, their voice, their tempo. This is, at this point, an inalienable reality for this tempo-pushing, hot-shooting team. And the Milwaukee Bucks are faced with the challenge of putting a stop to Haliburton and company's fleet-footed fastbreak frenzy.
If the Milwaukee Bucks are going to survive the first round without Damian Lillard for at least Game 1, they’ll need to throw the right defender at Haliburton from the jump.
The biggest question is this: Who should get the main assignment of guarding Haliburton? Let’s rank the candidates.
Kevin Porter Jr.
He is the current frontrunner, and it’s not particularly close.
Porter has been a revelation on both ends since arriving in Milwaukee, but his defense has gone underappreciated. His biggest selling point is that while he's no ball-stopper, his active hands make him a perpetual threat to steal the ball from anyone.
Per matchup data from NBA.com/stats, opposing guards are shooting 186-of-399 or 46.6 percent with KPJ as the closest defender. That's not the best, but it's certainly not bad, either. Through just a little over 370 minutes matched up against guards, Porter Jr. has managed to secure 53 turnovers and five blocks. His hands are active, he moves well laterally and he's always cognizant of where the passing lanes are in any given possession.
Haliburton isn’t going to try to overpower defenders — he’s going to beat them with craft and pace. KPJ’s feel and recovery speed could go a long way toward making that a frustrating experience.
The problem: He gives up some size and doesn’t match up athletically with Haliburton. He can contain him in stretches, but over a full game, Haliburton could wear him down. At the end of the day, Kevin Porter Jr. is more of a ball-hawk than a ball-stopper. He's perhaps the best on this team at pilfering the ball away from unsuspecting ball-handlers, but when he's unable to do so, he has a lot of work to do in rounding out his game as a defensive stopper.
But consider this: when defending pick-and-roll ball-handlers for the Milwaukee Bucks, which he has done for 32.4 percent of his defensive possessions, Kevin Porter Jr. causes a turnover 19 percent of the time and only gives up 0.76 points per possession. He's in the 86th percentile among guards in defending that kind of play.
The point is it's not close, and he's likely the best man for the job.
Damian Lillard
Once Lillard is back, the Milwaukee Bucks have a dilemma. You can’t hide him on Haliburton — he’s too central to everything Indiana does. But putting Lillard on him also invites constant screens and off-ball actions that demand elite footwork, and that’s just not his strength.
You start him on Haliburton and switch? You're asking for breakdowns. You fight over screens? You're probably a step behind. Best case? Lillard plays just enough defense to keep Haliburton honest and makes him work on the other end. But make no mistake: this would be a problem matchup.
In the playoffs a year ago, Lillard guarded Andrew Nembhard instead, against whom he spent the majority of his defensive possessions. And even though this was obviously a move by Doc Rivers to hide the weakest defender, Nembhard still gave Lillard the works.
Through four games and 123 partial possessions, Nembhard shot 6-of-12 (50.0 percent) and tallied five assists with Lillard as the closest defender.
Yet, knowing who Lillard is and has been this season, you can also bet that he can score back any points he gives up in spades. This one will be a gamble, but one at the very least worth considering once the guard is healthy.
Andre Jackson Jr.
Here's a reminder that we may need after months without Jackson in the rotation. He is still this team's most impactful and disruptive perimeter defender. His offensive limitations are what they are, but nobody can argue that his defense has won games for this team.
In the playoffs last year, Tyrese Haliburton played 30.4 partial possessions with a then-rookie Andre Jackson Jr. as his defensive assignment. And in those minutes, Haliburton could only get in a 3-of-8 (37.5 percent) shooting clip on top of one turnover.
Andre Jackson Jr. has barely played down the stretch. He’s out of the rotation. But he absolutely cooked Haliburton defensively in last year’s playoff matchup. Jackson is a pure athlete — fast, springy and disruptive. If Rivers wants to shake things up, Jackson could be the surprise pick to throw Haliburton off rhythm. He’ll likely muck up the offense and make a few mistakes here and there, but they’ll be loud, energetic mistakes.
The risk: He hasn’t been on the floor much with the core group. The reward: Indiana wouldn’t see it coming, and it might just work again.
Milwaukee's dog pound of defensive-minded wings
Taurean Prince absolutely has an argument. He’s strong navigating screens, disciplined at the point of attack and statistically sound defending pick-and-roll ball handlers — allowing just 0.86 points per possession, good for the 61st percentile league-wide. That’s not elite, but it’s steady, and steady can be valuable against someone like Haliburton, who thrives on punishing hesitation and bad angles.
That said, Prince might be more valuable elsewhere. He’s one of only two Bucks who are truly wing-sized — the other being Kyle Kuzma — and Milwaukee will need that length to handle Indiana’s bigger, more physical scorers. Guys like Pascal Siakam, Obi Toppin or Bennedict Mathurin aren’t necessarily go-to threats, but they will test the Bucks’ depth if left unchecked.
Prince’s size and mobility make him one of the better candidates to slide up and defend them while Milwaukee’s guards chase Haliburton.
Kuzma's numbers are even better than Prince's in defending PNR ball handlers — 0.83 points per possession allowed, landing him in the 71st percentile. But at 6-foot-9, he’s simply built to defend size, and asking him to check Haliburton at the point of attack, with Haliburton's quick trigger and manipulation of space, is a waste of his frame. He should be absorbing wings and secondary scorers to give the Milwaukee Bucks more flexibility behind the action.
The verdict
For this writer, it takes a village, and a Pacer-ready village would look like this. Start Porter on Haliburton in Game 1. Bring in Prince every now and then to spell him. Once Lillard returns, stagger his minutes so he avoids long defensive stretches against Indiana’s All-Star.
At the end of the day, the Bucks actually do have options. That’s the good news. Whether it’s Trent, Prince, Kuzma or even a curveball like Andre Jackson Jr., Milwaukee can throw different looks at Haliburton throughout the game. Maybe they even stagger minutes just to mess with the rhythm. Maybe they pick him up full court one possession, drop the next, switch occasionally and hedge on others.
The primary job — the every-possession, grind-it-out, matchup-hunting duty — should fall to Kevin Porter Jr. He's built up the chemistry with Giannis Antetokounmpo, he's held his own defensively all season, and he’s the one guy who gives you something on both ends in that matchup. The Bucks don't need one defender to stop Haliburton — they need all five guys on the floor to be locked in. It takes a village. But KPJ should be the mayor.
It’s the playoffs. You do what it takes.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.