Giannis’ 16-foot fadeaway at the buzzer has the Bucks at 5-2 on the young season with a 117-115 win over the Pacers. It certainly wasn’t a sterling effort with some glaring free-throw shooting, turnover,
and defense rebounding issues, but the Bucks are the sixth team to five wins. This is only Milwaukee’s second win in Indiana since the 2022–23 season. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.
Player Grades
Giannis Antetokounmpo
32 minutes, 33 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 14/21 FG, 1/2 3P, 4/9 FT, +8
Far be it from me to be too critical of the NBA’s leading scorer, who had his fifth 30-point outing of the season. And the guy who hit his first buzzer beater since the Obama administration. But his pull-up three with 31.5 left was not the shot Milwaukee needed, and missing both free throws up three with 3:31 left was scary. We’ll let those and the foul-line shooting slide.
Grade: A
Myles Turner
32 minutes, 9 points, 7 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3/7 FG, 2/6 3P, +7
Booed every time he touched the ball, Turner started the game off nicely and had three rejections in the first alone. His offense was pretty absent after halftime (1/4), but he generally played well on defense; the problem was that the Pacers knew how to draw him away from the rim, so the great rim protection he provided nearly the entire game wasn’t as present late in the fourth.
Grade: B
AJ Green
29 minutes, 13 points, 3 assists, 4/8 FG, 4/8 3P, +3
First-half foul trouble meant only seven minutes until the third, but he made his presence felt quickly. The two he hit within 30 seconds in the fourth were huge, and it looked like the Bucks might coast from there. I think he needs to be out there when Giannis isn’t.
Grade: B+
Ryan Rollins
28 minutes, 10 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 7 turnovers, 4/8 FG, 2/4 3P, -4
All over the court defensively on some possessions, and despite the 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio, quickly starting to look the part of a legit NBA point guard. In the second, Rollins threw a Middleton-esque outlet pass to Giannis for a fast-break dunk, then threw down a wild dunk as he drove past Pascal Siakam on a break of his own. His triples in the third were part of that big run to put them up 12.
Grade: A-
Gary Trent Jr.
34 minutes, 11 points, 3/12 FG, 3/10 3P, +8
A pretty rough night shooting the ball, but his last attempt and make was a big one to make it a five-point Bucks lead with 1:58 left. I would have liked to see him look for his own shot more—in the first, he drove inside and drew a foul.
Grade: C+
Cole Anthony
23 minutes, 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 turnovers, 4/8 FG, 3/4 3P, +4
That early fourth-quarter run had Anthony’s fingerprints all over it with two triples, a steal leading into a transition three, and two outstanding passes to Kyle Kuzma and Green in the corner. His brief stint later in the quarter was less successful, but he again looked great running the second unit.
Grade: B+
Taurean Prince
21 minutes, 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2/6 FG, 2/4 3P, +6
The only other reserve with a positive plus/minus. There was a sequence in the third where he attempted an ugly runner over Jay Huff, then got yakked by Shepherd on defense. Not good! But he redeemed himself with a three immediately after.
Grade: C+
Bobby Portis
16 minutes, 8 points, 2 rebounds, 3/7 FG, 2/5 3P, -5
His first half shift was pretty abysmal (0/3 from the floor), so it was nice to see him get his act together with eight points in nine second-half minutes. On a night where the Bucks again struggled on the defensive glass, it stood out even more that he prefers to tip the ball rather than secure rebounds with two hands.
Grade: C
Kyle Kuzma
16 minutes, 15 points, 5 rebounds, 5/10 FG, 1/3 3P, -6
Back-to-back really good outings from Kuzma off the bench, at least from a scoring perspective. He didn’t really stand out on defense, but he was making the right plays when the ball found him, and was pleasantly 3/5 in the paint.
Grade: B+
Doc Rivers
I thought this would be the night that he’d finally start the second quarter with one of Giannis—who checked out at the 4:28 mark of the first—or Turner. Alas. The lineups he ran during that stretch generally looked bad, but he corrected this by using Green and Anthony more in the fourth instead of using three bigs.
Grade: B
Limited Minutes: Amir Coffey, Jericho Sims
DNP-CD: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Gary Harris, Andre Jackson Jr., Mark Sears
Inactive: Alex Antetokounmpo, Kevin Porter Jr., Pete Nance
Bonus Bucks Bits
- When announced in the starting lineup, Turner predictably drew boos. He drew an even louder chorus of them when he first touched the ball on offense about a minute in. Turner was fouled immediately and split the free throws amidst the boos. He made his first field goal—a three—a couple minutes later, and his celebration set the fans off again.
- However, his tribute video aired pregame and drew a mixed reaction with some cheers.
- A fast break steal from Giannis just over three minutes in, thanks to a Rollins deflection, elicited a pretty hard foul by Aaron Nesmith, wrapping Giannis up in the air and sending him to the ground on his back. Though Giannis was ok, Jackson was assessed a flagrant-one. Giannis missed both free throws and then threw away the inbounds pass. Not great!
- Late in the first, Doc trotted out a super-sized lineup of Sims, Portis, Kuzma, Prince, and Anthony. They remained on the floor to start the second and defended well enough to be -1, but it’s not something I need to see again.
- During the second, Portis exited limping slightly. It seemed to be nothing substantial, and he played his usual complement of second-half minutes.
- Early-game turnovers continue to plague the Bucks, but after their seven in the first quarter, they cut it down to five in the second at least, and then three in each of the final two frames.
- Defensive rebounding is also looking like somewhat of an issue so far this season. Through three quarters, the Pacers had 12 offensive boards to the Bucks’ four, but that gap closed with a 5-2 edge on the offensive glass in the fourth. Their 69.8% DREB% was about average, and in line with their 69.3% season figure.
- The Pacers shot 17 (seventeen!) free throws in the second quarter. The Bucks shot freaking one. It was 15-8 Pacers in the second half too.
- Milwaukee entered the evening second-to-last in FT% at 70.7%, ahead of only Washington. The Wizards went 13/19 at the charity stripe tonight in a loss to the Knicks, so the Bucks are now the league’s worst foul-shooting team.
- Some other big disparities in the Bucks’ three-point shooting by quarter: after shooting 7/22 in the first half (31.8%), they scorched the nets to the tune of 6/12 in the third and 7/13 in the fourth to finish at 20/47, their best night by volume so far this year.
- This hasn’t happened in at least two years: the Bucks outscored the Pacers in transition, 23-11.
- Doc had some postgame words for the refs regarding missed calls and calls not going both ways in the fourth, also highlighting how he thought he flagrant-1 on Giannis should have been upgraded more. As he has before, he lamented how Giannis is officiated, but acknowledged the difficulty in doing so, saying “it’s like guarding a fast Shaq.“
- When asked about Giannis’ game-winner and the playcall, Doc expressed his satisfaction that the big fella touched paint, which has been a point of emphasis this year: “if he gets his foot in the paint, he makes that shot. When he takes it outside the paint, it’s a tougher shot for him. So, very happy that he took it.”
Up Next
Monday was the first night of a back-to-back for the Bucks—their first of the season. Today they’re in Toronto for the second time in 11 days, which will be their last trip to face the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena in the regular season. Tip is at 6:30 p.m. CST and viewable on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.
