Pacers Headed to In-Season Tournament Finals
Heading into this season’s in-season tournament majority of people would not have picked the Indiana Pacers to make it all the way to the finals of the tournament. Why would people not have predicted this? People wouldn’t have predicted this because before this season no one was aware of just how good their point guard Tyrese Haliburton is. While last season Haliburton did have a great year averaging nearly 21 points, 10 assists, and 2 steals a game, his numbers have gotten even significantly better as he is now averaging nearly 27 points, 12 assists, and shooting close to 53% from the field. Even with Haliburton’s great playing though, Indiana was still definitely not the favorites to beat Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks in this in-season tournament semi-final game. Let’s take a look at how the Pacers got this win.
If you are a Pacers fan you knew that for them to win this game, other players were going to have to step up besides Tyrese Haliburton. Yes, Haliburton is an incredible basketball player and just might have more potential than any young guy in the league, but the Bucks have two of the best players in the NBA in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. Lucky for the Pacers their other guys did step up in this game. Center Myles Turner had a monster game, finishing with 26 points and 10 rebounds. Power forward Obi Toppin, small forward Bruce Brown, and small forward Isaiah Jackson also contributed some nice offensive power, as they finished with 14, 10, and 11 points, respectively.
While they may not have won this game we can’t act like the Bucks were not also playing some incredible basketball. They were led in this one once again by their fearless leader Giannis Antetokounmpo, who walked off the court from this game with 37 points and 10 rebounds. Point guard Damian Lillard, while he didn’t have the most efficient game shooting the ball was still huge finishing with 24 points in the contest. Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez also contributed in big ways on the offensive and defensive ends as Middleton had 20 points and Lopez had 18 points and 4 blocks. The only problem for Milwaukee in this game was that no other player besides these four seemed to contribute much offensively or defensively, which has been a problem for numerous games they’ve had this season. They needed Bobby Portis or Malik Beasley to step up last night to get this win and it didn’t happen.
The Pacers did have the lead in this one at halftime 63-51, the Bucks were able to march back in the third quarter, scoring 43 points in the quarter, to have the lead 94-91 heading into the fourth. Fortunately for Indiana, the Pacers did not get discouraged by this. They came out in the fourth quarter destined to win this game and that’s exactly what they did. They outscored the Bucks 37-25 in the fourth quarter to win this in-season tournament Eastern Conference final game 128-119.
Milwaukee will head back home to rest for the weekend before they take on the lackluster Chicago Bulls at home on Monday night. Meanwhile, the Pacers will not head back home as they have to stay in Las Vegas to take on Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night at 8:30 PM in T-Mobile Arena. While the Lakers seem to only be getting hotter and Indiana will certainly have their work cut out for them, Haliburton, Turner, and the whole Pacers organization will search for any game plan that prevents LeBron James from adding “In-Season Tournament Champion” to his already mile-long resume.
