Giannis Antetokounmpo: Nigerian Freak bags triple-double as Bucks beat Pacers

After the Pacers won a six-game first-round playoff series the previous season, the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers met for the first time.

The Bucks managed to get retribution with a 129-117 victory in an NBA Cup game over a Pacers team that beat them 4-1 in the regular season.

The Pacers are declining, losing five of their last six games to 6-10, while the Bucks climbed to 7-9 and won for the fifth time in six games.

The Bucks advanced to 2-0 in East Group B and the Pacers fell to 0-2, in an NBA Cup pool play game.

Milwaukee was essentially in charge from the start, taking an early 10-0 lead and eventually leading by as many as 24 points with just over four minutes left in the third quarter.

With five minutes and fifty-two seconds remaining in the game, the Bucks allowed Indiana to trim the score to 108-102 instead of eliminating the Pacers.

However, similar to their last game against Chicago, the Bucks came on late to outscore the Pacers 21–15 in the closing minutes.

Triple-doubles from Giannis Antetokounmpo and double-doubles from Damian Lillard led Milwaukee to victory.

The Bucks were ignited by 18 points from Gary Trent Jr. and 17 points from Bobby Portis Jr. off the bench.

Brook Lopez also hit double figures with 11, and Taurean Prince added 13.

Tyrese Haliburton was restricted to 18 points on 6 of 14 points, while Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 25 points and Ben Mathurin with 20.