Pacers are driving the Bucks crazy

Milwaukee and their veteran stars seem annoyed they keep having to play the young Pacers.

After beating the Bucks in the first two meetings of the year, including a spotlight win in Las Vegas during the NBA In-Season Tournament, the Pacers had the full attention of the Bucks on Wednesday night on the Fiserve Forum court.

As Damian Lillard would put it, the Bucks were hungry and focused on turning the tables on the Pacers. Ready to serve up a little humble pie with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard reasserting their status as the top team in the Central Division.

The Bucks certainly accomplished that task with a 140-126 win, lead by a 64-point effort from Giannis. But they did so with high levels of cringe and then after the final buzzer, went full goofy, lead again by Giannis in his effort to secure a game ball.

The whole thing was giggle out loud funny. Giannis was dead serious in his quest, taking great umbrage wit the Pacers and the situation while everyone else was either, laughing under their breath or trolling the Greek Freak further. No need to run through the details here, World Wide Wob has a perfect Wobvestigation which hits all of the high points, along with quotes.

High comedy.

Obviously, the Bucks didn’t like how the Pacers enjoyed their IST semi win and the extra cash payments at their expense in Vegas. Giannis made it his mission to exact revenge which he did, playing until the end of the game to amass 64 points, even if the Pacers emptied their bench with six minutes to play. So, yeah, the Pacers were in eff you made after Giannis celebrated his way thru the third string down the stretch.

One has to wonder, where this effort was at winning time in Vegas. There are many funny parts of the story, but to me the funniest part is that Giannis should LOVE the Pacers. He should encourage them to keep doing what they’re doing and don’t make any changes because the Pacers literally have no one who can guard the Greek Freak.

Yes, the Pacers lead the series 2-1 so far this season, but Giannis is averaging over 50 points per game against the Pacers. He went to the free throw line 32 times! And it is hard to argue any of the calls. The game was a mess, with 80 free throws, certainly not the type of game the Pacers want to play, so for that the Bucks deserve much credit.

As for the Pacers, they dominated the post game with a series of moves that just further agitated Giannis and the Bucks. Starting with Rick Carlisle delivering his usual deadpan responses to post game questions, remaining in character while saying the Pacers were just focused on getting a game ball for Oscar Tshiebwe and wasn’t thinking about Giannis’ franchise record.

Meanwhile, the Pacers social media crew is tweeting out congratulations to Tshiebwe along with an earlier video of the Big O talking about his dream and goal of playing in an NBA game.

Also, when Giannis tried to confront the team in the tunnel, Myles Turner and other can be heard, saying keep it, don’t give him the ball. Then when Giannis returns to the court to try to intimidate Haliburton by demanding he go get the ball for him, Haliburton just smirks and doesn’t budge.

Then, in the chef’s kiss of closing moves, the Pacers signed black belt and all-around beloved teammate, James Johnson to join the team on Thursday. Just in case any other teams consider trying to rough up Haliburton going forward.

The Bucks won the game and in doing so, again exposed the Pacers main issues dealing with big wings who are capable of scoring. But while the Pacers lost this battle, it was abundantly clear that they have secured an open space in the Bucks head, which isn’t a good look for Giannis and the boys.

I mean, Giannis was seriously trying to make the case that the Bucks needed a second ball because Lillard passed Kyle Korver for fifth (FIFTH!) on the three-ball makes list. Get outta here!

Stay tuned for what should be an epic home and home series between the two teams, with the next game on Jan. 1 at Milwaukee followed by the final regular season matchup on Jan. 3 in Indy.

I like the idea I heard about handing out mini basketballs with the date of Tshiebwe’s first point to fans. Also, would love it if the Pacers just brought out 15 game balls to make available after the game.

Regardless, these matchups should have plenty of juice going forward. Enjoy the heat!