Are the Bucks ever going to do something about the Pacers?

Tom Ziller

23 Apr 2025 — 7 min read

Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose; John Singer Sargent; 1885-86

Good morning. Milwaukee talks more smack during the game, but still loses to Indiana. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies are not playing the same game as the Thunder. Let's basketball.

Something that's been consistent about the Milwaukee Bucks over the past two seasons is that they want to mix it up and fight (usually figuratively and sometimes literally) with the Indiana Pacers. Again on Tuesday night in Indianapolis, the Bucks were committing hard fouls and talking smack and all that.

The problem for Milwaukee is that there's a growing body of evidence that the Bucks are simply not as good as the Pacers. Milwaukee is now 6-11 against Indiana since the start of the 2023-24 season, playoffs inclusive. After the Pacers' 123-115 win on Tuesday, the Bucks are down 0-2 in this series with a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Damian Lillard returned to action, which feels like a miracle. Unfortunately, he looked like someone who hasn't played in a while and who ramped up quickly. It's an odd issue to come back from, a blood clot. You can't work out, but you're not physically in pain. It's a cardio and rhythm issue more than anything. Does that mean by Game 3 or 4 Lillard will be back to "normal"? Or is he more or less shot for the series? He's not particularly young.

This is super relevant because with a sub-prime Dame, Giannis might have the worst supporting cast of any superstar in recent memory. Antetokounmpo had 34 points on 14/20 shooting, 18 rebounds and seven assists. Bobby Portis Jr. produced (28 points on 11/19 shooting), but there was very little guard or wing support. The closest supporting cast to this: perhaps Nikola Jokic in 2021-22, when Jamal Murray missed the entire season and Michael Porter Jr. played just nine games. LeBron's 2017-18 Cavaliers might be another example: sure, there are some nice players around, but the superstar is three levels higher than anyone else, and it shows, and it's kind of sad. That's the current Bucks.

The Pacers, on the other hand, are well-balanced. The defense is still a little shaky (despite finishing the season league average) but there are just so many options for Rick Carlisle to play on both ends. Just map some of the Pacers to the Bucks' roster – you might have seven Indiana players who would be Milwaukee's second or third best player behind Giannis and/or Dame. Or another experiment: swap Giannis with Pascal Siakam, a legit current All-Star and contender for an All-NBA slot and the best player on Indiana. The Pacers With Giannis In Place Of Siakam would be top-tier title contenders, right? Right?

The Bucks are doing a lot against the Pacers except winning games. Part of that is that the Pacers are a really well-built team with strong talent. Part of that is about the Bucks' deficiencies. Regardless of what Giannis says or does this offseason – assuming this series is it for this team, which is hard to decree with a team going home and a team with a player as excellent as Antetokounmpo – the Bucks need to come to grips with the empty pantry. No offense to the Pacers, but if you can't get past this team, you have no hope against the Celtics and Cavaliers and gods forbid Thunder. And you've tasted glory with Giannis at the core. There's no going back to satisfaction with modest successes after that. It's one of the curses of winning the championship: that becomes the standard. It's a standard that feels impossible to live up to for teams like this.

Game 3 is Friday.

OKC Is 6-0 and +135 Against Memphis This Season

The Grizzlies can't even lose by single digits to the Thunder. Memphis has led for 2 minutes and 21 seconds of this series. It's been tied for 3 minutes and 49 seconds. OKC has led the remaining 89 minutes and 50 seconds.

At least this one didn't turn into an early laugher: Memphis showed some spine in the third quarter before OKC re-asserted control. Ja Morant ended up playing 40 minutes as the Grizzlies try to dent the Thunder. It's not working: the Memphis defense can't do a damn thing with this OKC offense, and the Grizzlies are having real trouble scoring reliably against the Thunder's superb defense.

This is why all these West teams tried so hard to avoid the play-in. Facing this team in the first round was certain death.

Did the Grizzlies really do Taylor Jenkins a favor? I've seen more shots of a silently beguiled Tuomas Iisalo in the past week (play-in included) than I can count.

Memphis is not great, and the other West series all feature two high-quality teams, so you don't want to overreact broadly to a localized smackdown like this. But also: OKC did this to just about everyone all season. They might just rip through the conference. This might just be the overwhelmingly best team in the West. We'll see.

I Thought Bricktown Was In Oklahoma?

The Lakers shot 20.7% from deep in Game 2 ... and outshot the Wolves (20.0%). Criticisms of three-point volume in the modern NBA are partially personal taste, partially traditionalism. Sometimes, the criticisms are just plain right.

That said, the game – which L.A. won unconvincingly 94-85, Minnesota's lowest total of the season – was still interesting, and portends a long series assuming the Lakers hit some threes at some point. All the shots the Timberwolves' supplemental scorers were hitting in Game 1 rimmed out in Game 2: the offense was all Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards. Luka Doncic had a very nice game all told despite catching the cold shooting contagion from long range.

This series is as competitive as Nuggets-Clippers, but it feels like it's being executed at a lower level if that makes sense. Perhaps there's something about the Wolves that mucks it up just enough to feel ... weird. Remember: for all the moments of defensive glory in the Wolves' triumph over Denver last spring, the series went seven and none of the games were particularly beautiful.

I still have no idea who's going to win this. I'm not sure anyone involved does either. Game 3 is Friday.

Two Notes on the Boston Celtics

First, Payton Pritchard is your Sixth Man of the Year. Hard to argue: he was a true sixth man this season and he was awesome. He was listed on all 100 ballots. Malik Beasley, who would also have been a fine winner, finished second, appearing on 95 ballots but with just a fraction of the first-place votes Pritchard received. Ty Jerome came in third. Multiple Timberwolves placed (Naz Reid was on 17 ballots, including one first-place vote, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker made three ballots), pulling into question the nature of being for sixth and seventh men. Alas. Alex Caruso received a third-place vote, which somehow feels a little disrespectful to Aaron Wiggins?

Second Celtics' note: Jayson Tatum is doubtful for Game 2 on Wednesday due to that wrist injury. Hmm.

Links

Paul Flannery on what he saw in the Celtics' first game against Orlando.

Really interesting comments from Joe Dumars in his introductory press conference. Lots of stuff about holding players to strict conduct standards, which is either a prelude to Zion Williamson no longer missing flights or a prelude to Zion Williamson getting traded. Dumars also said that Gayle Benson, the team's owner, hadn't issued any mandates about Willie Green or Zion or anything.

Speaking of football owners, here's Jerry Jones saying that his wife cried when she found out the Mavericks had traded Luka.

Landry Fields was dismissed by the Hawks, with the team promoting Onsi Saleh to general manager and opening up a search for a new president of basketball operations. Fields did excellent with the Dyson Daniels trade and probably made the right choice picking Zaccharie Risacher No. 1 overall, but then he was also responsible for the initial Dejounte Murray trade that didn't turn out so well, and the Hawks haven't won a playoff series in the shallow East since Fields was elevated to the top slot. Saleh was with the Warriors before last season. Is Atlanta a potential Bob Myers landing spot?!

The Athletic's anonymous player poll is out. The headline is that Tyrese Haliburton was tagged as the league's most overrated player. Do with that what you will. The entire field of players who received votes is pretty hilarious, though. Jrue Holiday getting votes is a pretty good bit given that Holiday's career has been a series of people noting how underrated he is. Rudy Gobert and Trae Young are classic answers to this question (I disagree on both – Rudy's defensive impact is really important and Trae is rarely in the mix for individual honors despite outrageous numbers and decent team performance). Jock Landale getting a vote? That's the stuff right there. Jayson Tatum getting the same number of votes as LaMelo Ball??? Alright. The other poll answer that really stood out: Brian Keefe being well-known enough among players to be selected as the worst coach in the league ... and Mike Budenholzer finishing second. Oof.

Tom Haberstroh on who benefits from the refs (re-)swallowing their whistles.

Owen Phillips on being the sum of your weakest links.

Scott Hines ranks things about Earth.