INDIANAPOLIS — Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points including a driving layup with 1.3 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Pacers a 119-118 win over the Bucks in Game 5 of the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs. They clinched the series 4-1 and move on to play the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference semifinals.
Myles Turner scored 21 points. Forward Aaron Nesmith had 19 points and 12 rebounds. Milwaukee’s Gary Trent Jr. scored 33 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo had a triple-double with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists.
Trent Jr. and Antetokounmpo tried to carry the Bucks, who were without star guard Damian Lillard – diagnosed with a torn Achilles suffered early in Game 4 – but they came up short in the playoffs for the second year in a row. Lillard also missed a portion of the playoffs last season, and Antetokounmpo missed all of last season’s playoffs.
Here are three observations:
Tyrese Haliburton shrugs off misses, goes to the rim for game-winner
Haliburton missed six shots in overtime including four 3-pointers and those were a big part of the reason the Pacers fell behind by six points in the period. However, in the final 30 seconds he scored two driving layups, drawing a foul on one to finish with five points in that stretch to give the Pacers the lead back. He also scored the last six points of regulation to force overtime and finished with 26 points and nine assists.
T.J. McConnell steps up
After a sensational performance in last year’s playoffs, T.J. McConnell has been a little quieter this season. He entered Tuesday night averaging 8.0 points and 5.0 assists per game after scoring 11.8 per game and averaging 5.1 assists. He was still shooting 51.7% from the floor, but had scored in double figures just twice in the first four games with a zero-point performance in Game 3.
Game 5 would count as his breakout performance of the playoffs, however, as his funky mid-range game and ability to get into the lane proved critical as the Pacers steadied themselves after falling behind by 20 points. He scored 18 points on 7-of-11 scoring, dished out three assists and also hit four key free throws.
Pacers put themselves in a 20-point hole, recover
It’s an easy joke to make that the Pacers didn’t get the memo that they were starting at 6 p.m., an hour earlier than a typical weeknight start time, but they certainly didn’t seem to be present in anything resembling their usual form until after the first quarter.
The Bucks — who entered three new starters into the lineup in AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr. and Bobby Portis — went on a 13-0 run to start the game and the Pacers didn’t score until the 7:32 mark in the first period, posting four missed field goals, two missed free throws and a turnover before they got on the board.
The Pacers weren’t much better on either end the rest of the quarter. They lost the period 30-13, allowing the Bucks to make 12-of-19 field goals and 4-of-7 3s, posting 1.31 points per possession while they made just 4-of-17 field goals and 1-of-8 3s, turning the ball over five times and posting an abysmal 0.55 points per possession. The Bucks scored first in the second quarter on a Kyle Kuzma 3-pointer to go up 33-13.
But after that, the Pacers woke up and showed more fire on both ends of the floor and by the 9:03 mark of the third quarter they had erased the deficit entirely, taking a 52-51 lead on a 30-foot Andrew Nembhard 3-pointer.
