A pair of sinking foes will meet up in Indianapolis on Tuesday when the Indiana Pacers face the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee dropped its third straight game and fifth in its past six tries on Sunday when a 40-point second half doomed the Bucks in a 103-100 setback against the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Giannis Antetokounmpo out since Dec. 3 as he deals with a strained right calf, Milwaukee’s offense has come to a standstill.
Across the three-game losing streak, the Bucks are averaging just 95.7 points per game. Compounding Milwaukee’s overall struggles is a 3-10 record away from home. Coach Doc Rivers’ group has lost eight straight road games, having last prevailed outside of Wisconsin on Nov. 10 in a 116-114 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
“There’s no key to it,” Rivers said of getting over the hump on the road. “Every game is different. We’re going to play Indiana and it’s going to be a different game than it was (on Sunday). You can’t turn the ball over and you have to rebound, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to score more points than the other team. That’s as simple as I can make it.”
Kevin Porter Jr. has asserted himself as Milwaukee’s go-to offensive playmaker, and he is averaging career highs of 20 points and 7.7 assists per game. The 25-year-old point guard is averaging 23 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds across the Bucks’ the past two games.
“You can learn something from wins and losses,” Porter said. “We’ve seen the winning recipe, and we’ve got to trust it.”
Behind Porter, Ryan Rollins chips in 17 points per game, while Kyle Kuzma contributes 13.4 per contest.
Indiana, which bounced Milwaukee in the first round of the postseason each of the past two years, is on pace to post the worst winning percentage in franchise history (.207).
The Pacers are in the midst of their third losing streak of at least five games after falling 103-95 to the host Boston Celtics on Monday. Indiana mustered just 13 fourth-quarter points, leaving coach Rick Carlisle in search of small victories.
“I’m just looking for wins. (Rookie) Kam Jones scored his first NBA points,” Carlisle said on Monday. “Guys are out there fighting. We’ve got to get the heck out of here and get on the plane, get back and play Milwaukee.”
Jones, a former Marquette All-American, entered for his NBA debut in the last minute and scored on a layup with 4.4 seconds remaining. He had been sidelined due to a lower back injury.
Indiana’s average of 109.7 points per game ranks second to last in the NBA, only ahead of the Brooklyn Nets’ 109.1 mark. Even after another hapless offensive output, Carlisle praised his team’s continued effort.
“We held (Boston) to 103 points. That’s another small win,” Carlisle said. “We’re trying to win basketball games, but this team is going through difficult things, but they’re things that are going to strengthen us.”
Pascal Siakam has played in all but one game for the Pacers, and he leads the team in scoring at 23.8 points per game. He had a team-best 25 on Monday. Bennedict Mathurin adds 18.7 ppg for Indiana, which fell to visiting Milwaukee 117-115 on Nov. 3 in the team’s first meeting this season. Antetokounmpo scored 33 points in that contest.
