The Milwaukee Bucks won the season series and have the greater postseason experience, but the Indiana Pacers hold the home-court advantage when the rivals tip off an Eastern Conference first-round best-of-seven playoff series Saturday afternoon in Indianapolis.
The Pacers earned the No. 4 seed in the East by virtue of finishing two games ahead of the Bucks, using a 7-1 finish to the regular season to hold off Milwaukee, which won its last eight games.
Indiana will be making just its second trip to the postseason in the last five years. The Pacers eliminated the Bucks, who were missing star Giannis Antetokounmpo, in the first round last year, gaining a key road win in Game 2 before holding serve with home triumphs in Games 3, 4 and 6.
Led by Antetokounmpo, the Bucks turned the tables this season, getting a New Year’s Eve win at Indiana and winning both home games for a 3-1 series win.
Antetokounmpo got the better of Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, averaging 30.0 points, 12.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists while shooting 65 percent. He had a triple-double in the teams’ first meeting at Milwaukee in November and went for 30 or more points in all three wins.
Haliburton, meanwhile, was held to 18 or fewer points in three of the four head-to-heads. He shot just 3-for-13 and totaled 12 points in the home loss in December.
Both stars enter the postseason on a nice roll. Antetokounmpo averaged a triple-double in his six April outings, trailing only Nikola Jokic (33.2) and Cade Cunningham (33.0) with his 31.8 scoring average. Haliburton averaged a double-double in five games, shooting 51 percent from the field.
Antetokounmpo, whose strained left calf last April ended a seven-year run of playoff appearances, will begin his quest for a second NBA championship without standout sidekick Damian Lillard, who sat out Milwaukee’s final 14 games with deep vein thrombosis in his right calf.
The veteran has been cleared to return to on-court workouts, and is expected to return during the series, but the Bucks have only announced that Lillard won’t play in the opener.
“There’s no limitations at all … other than his lungs and timing and everything else,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers reported after monitoring a workout Thursday. “You don’t miss all that and just jump back in. It’s not like he’s been injured and working out. He’s been injured without working out; that’s hard.”
As opposed to the Bucks, Haliburton’s co-star — Pascal Siakam — enters the postseason running on all cylinders. He averaged 17.8 points in four April contests, shooting 50 percent overall and 46 percent on 3-pointers.
While enjoying overall success on the scoreboard, the Bucks had trouble dealing with Siakam in the regular season. He scored between 20 and 26 points in all four games, shooting 55 percent.
Siakam was the unofficial MVP of last year’s playoff series, leading the Pacers with 22.3 points per game while shooting 55 percent and grabbing a team-high 8.8 rebounds.
The second-year Pacer would love to bring home the franchise’s first championship since an ABA crown in 1973.
“The city, the state … they deserve a win,” he declared. “That’s what I’m thinking about: Just wanting to win, not only for myself and my family, but for the organization, for my teammates.”
