Bucks 118, Pacers 100: Holiday, Antetokounmpo lead Bucks to seventh straight victory

The Milwaukee Bucks have found their form in the last two weeks while the Indiana Pacers continue to play inconsistently, and that bore out on Sunday night as the Bucks won their seventh straight game, 118-100, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

The Bucks have now won six straight and 11 of their last 13 over their Central Division rivals.

Indiana (9-13) had come into the game as winners of three of their last four, but new head coach Rick Carlisle has been manipulating lineup combinations and rotations all season looking for synergy.

Milwaukee (13-8) on the other hand, is streaking. A huge part of that is the “big three” of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday are on the court together. The Bucks improved to 9-0 when the trio play.

“It’s always good to have Jrue and Khris out there, they draw a lot of attention,” Antetokounmpo said. “Grayson (Allen) is a pretty good player. And Bobby (Portis). So there is so much attention, there’s so many threats out there. I feel like once you have guys like Jrue that handles the ball, Khris that can handle the ball, me, you always have good plays. You always have something good going on.

"There’s going to be some nights we’re going to be off. There’s going to be some nights that we’re going to make the wrong play and we’re going to turn the ball over.

"But I feel like we’ve learned to play with one another. We’ve learned how to take turns. We know when Khris goes out, now Jrue handles the ball more. When Jrue goes out, now I handle the ball more. Khris comes back, now he’s the handler.

"We know how to work with one another. And I think it’s only going to get better.”

Holiday, in particular, has shined the last few games as he followed what head coach Mike Budenholzer called his best game in Denver with a 23-point, nine-assist effort against the Pacers. Over the last four games, Holiday is shooting 55.7% (34-for-61) and is averaging 19.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.3 assists.

"I think he's in a good place," Budenholzer said. "If he gets a few threes to fall it's going to be even better. His aggressiveness getting to the basket, finishing, taking guys, using his physicality, using his strength to finish. I just think he's finding some spots, he's picking them and he's getting there and we've needed it. He's given us separation both games."

Antetokounmpo had 26 points and 13 rebounds while Middleton had 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. The Bucks went with a three-man bench (Pat Connaughton, George Hill, Rodney Hood) for the bulk of the game and Connaughton led that trio with 14 points.

On the defensive end, Indiana all-star forward Domantas Sabonis didn’t score a field goal until the 4-minute, 46-second mark of the third quarter and was held to just four points on 1 of 8 shooting. Sabonis did pull down 10 rebounds.

The Pacers were competitive but they eventually didn’t have enough offense to make up for the lack of offense from Sabonis and center Myles Turner (two points). The two big men played just 22 minutes each, and the Bucks outscored the Pacers 62-36 in the paint.

“I think on Giannis they were switching so much Sabonis and Turner were guarding the guards, so I think when you guard somebody that far out – as a big, I don’t know, I look to attack,” Holiday said. “We know that Myles is a pretty good shot blocker but we have guys that are able to use the body we kind of just separate and get nice looks at the basket. Him and Sabonis being so aggressive worked to our advantage.”

That interior production helped offset a 8-for-35 (22.9%) shooting performance from behind the three-point line for Milwaukee.

Caris Levert led Indiana with 23 points and Malcolm Brogdon had 16.

The Bucks took a 98-78 lead after the first three minutes of the fourth quarter and were able to play around that margin for the entire quarter before Carlisle pulled his second unit with 6:51 to go. Budenholzer pulled most of his starters with 5:27 left.

Indiana never led in the third quarter but was on the verge in the early going as they had three chances to get a stop and flip the scoreboard – but each time they trailed by either one, two or three points they gave up a basket. Then, the Bucks went on a 15-4 run to stretch a 66-62 lead to 81-66 with three minutes left. In the previous quarters, such a run precipitated a similar Pacers move but that was not to be as the Bucks eventually went up by as many as 19 before taking a 91-74 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Bucks held a 10-point lead in the first and second quarters but took a 52-47 lead into the break as the Pacers prevented them from building a bigger lead with runs of their own.

Antetokounmpo (14 points), Portis (11) and Holiday (10) led the Bucks and helped offset a slow shooting start from Middleton (2-for-7). The three-man bench the Bucks used in the opening half also didn’t have much luck on offense, combining for just seven points on 3 of 10 shooting.

Overall, the Bucks were shooting nearly 50% the entire half before dipping to 47.7% - but they couldn’t buy a three in making just 3 of 15 from behind the arc. Indiana wasn’t much better (8-for-26) but the extra threes helped them keep within shouting distance.

Levert led all scorers with 18 points, including making three of his four, three-point attempts.

Milwaukee started the second quarter on a 10-0 run to take a 36-26 lead, but then Indiana immediately responded with a 11-5 run of their own to get back within a couple baskets at 43-39 with just under three minutes left in the half. From there the lead yo-yoed between five and eight points until the break.

It was a similar scene to the first quarter, as the Bucks used a 16-4 run in the heart of the period to go up 20-10. But, the Pacers immediately responded with an 14-4 run of their own to tie the game 24-24 with 2:10 to go. The teams slumped from there, with the Bucks scoring one basket and the Pacers making two free throws to go into the second quarter tied at 26.

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Editor's note: An earlier version of this story said the Bucks' previous game was in Utah. The game was in Denver.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks 118, Pacers 100: Winning streak extends to seven games