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INDIANAPOLISThe final game before the All-Star break sure didn’t feel like a ho-hum Wednesday night regular season game in February.

 

Playoff intensity was alive and well inside of Bankers Life Fieldhouse with the Pacers taking on the best team in the Eastern Conference.

 

But, like has happened so many times in that building over the past half dozen years, the best player on the floor wasn’t wearing blue and yellow.

 

And that was the difference.

 

A triple double of 33 points, 19 rebounds and 11 assists by Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to a fast start on Wednesday, along with all the necessary plays down the stretch.

 

The Pacers (38-20) blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead and their 6-game win streak came to an end to Milwaukee (43-14).

 

Indiana made one field goal in the final 4:42, as a 10-point lead with 9:35 to go melted away.

 

“Their defense tightened up,” Nate McMillan said of what changed in the final period. “They went to switches that we didn’t take advantage of. They had their five switching on our ball screens and we had size in the post. But we could never take advantage of that. That was the difference in the ball game.”

 

The poor execution from the Pacers late looked like a team needing that lead guy to turn to for a bucket.

 

Holding the Bucks to 107 points was a win, considering they rank 2nd in the NBA in scoring at 117.1 points per game.

 

That only adds to the sting of one getting away against the best team in the East.

 

A stingy third quarter by Indiana on the defensive end of the floor helped the Pacers quickly erase an 8-point halftime deficit.

 

But the bench unit that had played so well to get that lead was left in the game a bit too long in the 4th as the Bucks made their final run.

 

The Pacers now enter the All-Star break 3rd in the East and with a 38-20 record, which is a 5-game improvement from last season.

 

Three Pacers’ Takeaways:

Defending Giannis: No. 34 in white on Wednesday night was reminiscent of LeBron James inside of Bankers Life Fieldhouse in years past. Giannis Antetokounmpo seemingly got whatever he wanted on Wednesday night. Historically, the Pacers have done one of the best jobs of any team in the league against Antetokounmpo. That didn’t happen on Wednesday, with Giannis scoring and assisting on all 9 field goals the Bucks scored in the first quarter. He finished the night with 33 points, 19 rebounds and 11 assists. In the last meeting between these two teams, Thaddeus Young held Giannis to just 12 points on 6 shots. But, the best player in the Eastern Conference (arguably) played like that on Wednesday. Like most NBA teams, the Bucks are such a difficult matchup

Can You Beat The Elite (Enough)? It’s the elephant in the room as the Pacers head into the All-Star break. Even when the Pacers had Victor Oladipo this year, there was still that lingering question if they could consistently beat the NBA’s elite teams. Record wise, the Pacers are 13-9 without Victor Oladipo this season. That’s a really good mark. But they’ve only beaten 3 playoff teams without Oladipo (Jazz, Spurs and Hornets). For any playoff success to happen in a few months, that script must change. That’s why it’s so pivotal for the Pacers to hold onto that 3 seed (currently 1 game up on Boston and Philadelphia heading into the break), so they can play a Brooklyn, Charlotte, Detroit or Miami in Round One, and not Boston or Philadelphia. Against the other top 5 teams in each conference this season, the Pacers are now 4-11.

Nate McMillan Deserves Credit: For a second straight year, Nate McMillan has positioned himself on the Coach of the Year ballot at the All-Star break. The Pacers have not had Victor Oladipo for 22 of their 58 games this season, yet are still in the 3rd spot of the Eastern Conference thanks to a 38-20 record. Look at the teams around the Pacers and count the All-Star players + top draft picks. The Pacers don’t have those, yet currently hold homecourt in Round One of the playoffs. That was a definite goal for this team entering the season and they’ve achieved that even with their top player missing nearly 40 percent of the season. McMillan has meshed this group together enough to have hardly any drop off without Oladipo, which is something we didn’t see last year.

 

Pacers Upcoming Schedule

-All-Star Break

-Pelicans (Friday, 2/22)

-at Washington (Saturday, 2/23)

-at Detroit (Monday, 2/25)

-at Dallas (Wednesday, 2/27)

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